In the present thesis the dynamics of the correlations between an open quantum system and its environment is investigated. This becomes feasible by means of a very useful representation of the total system-environment state. General conditions for separability and entanglement of the latter are derived, and investigated in the framework of an open quantum two-level system, which is coupled to a dissipative and a dephasing environment.

In the present thesis the dynamics of the correlations between an open quantum system and its environment is investigated. This becomes feasible by means of a very useful representation of the total system-environment state. General conditions for separability and entanglement of the latter are derived, and investigated in the framework of an open quantum two-level system, which is coupled to a dissipative and a dephasing environment.

Recently, two attentional modes have been associated with specifi c eye movement patterns during scene processing. Ambient mode, characterized by short fi xations and long saccades during early scene inspection, is associated with localization of objects. Focal mode, characterized by longer fi xations, is associated with more detailed object feature processing during later inspection phase. The aim of the present study was to investigate the development of these attentional modes. More specifi cally, we examined whether indications of ambient and focal attention modes are similar in infants and adults. Therefore, we measured eye movements in 3- to 12-months-old infants while exploring visual scenes. Our results show that both adults and 12-month-olds had shorter fi xation durations within the fi rst 1.5 s of scene viewing compared with later time phases (>2.5 s); indicating that there was a transition from ambient to focal processing during image inspection. In younger infants, fi xation durations between two viewing phases did not differ. Our results suggest that at the end of the fi rst year of life, infants have developed an adult-like scene viewing behavior. The evidence for the existence of distinct attentional processing mechanisms during early infancy furthermore underlines the importance of the concept of the two modes.