Face detection in complex visual displays: an eye-tracking study with 3- and 6-month-old infants and adults.
The ability to detect and prefer a face when embedded in complex visual displays was investigated in 3- and 6-month-old infants, as well as in adults, through a modified version of the visual search paradigm and the recording of eye movements. Participants (N=43) were shown 32 visual displays that comprised a target face among 3 or 5 heterogeneous objects as distractors. Results demonstrated that faces captured and maintained adults' and 6-month-olds' attention, but not 3-month-olds' attention. Overall, the current study contributes to knowledge of the capacity of social stimuli to attract and maintain visual attention over other complex objects in young infants as well as in adults.
Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy. elisa.digiorgio@unipd.it
Elisa
E
Di Giorgio
Chiara
C
Turati
Gianmarco
G
Altoè
Francesca
F
Simion
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D002666:Psychology, Child; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012858:Size Perception