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Developmental Aspects of Selective Orientation

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Attention and Cognitive Development

Abstract

In addition to its general alerting effect, the orientation response (OR) has a selective component (Sokolov, 1963). In its most overt form the selective OR consists in turning (of gaze, head position, and body) toward the source of stimulation. For all bisymmetrically organized species (Bilateria) this lateral orienting is the point of departure for the adaptively crucial choice— to approach or to withdraw (Schneirla, 1959). It is hardly surprising that newborn (and even premature) human infants are able to orient to either side. For the Bilateria this is, after all, perhaps the most ancient and basic behavior (Kinsbourne, 1974a). And inasmuch as neurological elaboration, and therefore behavioral elaboration, typically proceeds not by introducing new (“emergent”) organizational principles but by refining existing ones, it comes as no surprise that a hierarchy of behaviors culminating in ones that are quite abstract are stacked upon and modify this primitive response.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuropsychology Research Unit, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1X8, Canada

    Marcel Kinsbourne & James M. Swanson

Authors
  1. Marcel Kinsbourne
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  2. James M. Swanson
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychological Development Research Division, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

    Gordon A. Hale

  2. Institute for the Study of Exceptional Children, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

    Michael Lewis

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© 1979 Plenum Press, New York

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Kinsbourne, M., Swanson, J.M. (1979). Developmental Aspects of Selective Orientation. In: Hale, G.A., Lewis, M. (eds) Attention and Cognitive Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2985-5_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2985-5_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-2987-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-2985-5

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