Revisiting associations between infant cognitive functioning and maternal caregiving quality using eye-tracking and Bayesian cognitive modelling

Extensive research demonstrates the importance of high-quality caregiving in promoting infant cognitive development. However, it remains unknown what specific aspects of infants’ cognitive functioning relate to higher quality of caregiving. In this study, we related multiple infant cognitive measures derived from eye-tracking data to individual differences in emotional and cognitive dimensions of maternal caregiving. Participants were 66 mothers and their infants (mean age: 8.0 months, SD=1.1). Mother-infant interactions (during a diaper change and joint book reading) were recorded and subsequently observed by independent raters to assess maternal caregiving quality. Infant eye-tracking data, collected during a visual learning task, were used to inform a Bayesian cognitive model and infer individual differences in attention, learning, processing speed, and curiosity. We found a U-shaped relation between infants’ attention and maternal caregiving. Infants with very low and very high attention scores received higher-quality caregiving from their mothers, while infants with intermediate scores received lower-quality caregiving. This may indicate that mothers adapt their caregiving behaviour to the attentional needs of their infants, providing higher-quality caregiving to infants who either struggle to engage (low attention scores) or disengage (high attention scores). Maternal caregiving quality was not associated with any other cognitive measure.