title: The moving window technique: a window into developmental changes in attention during facial emotion recognition.
abstract: The strategies children employ to selectively attend to different parts of the face may reflect important developmental changes in facial emotion recognition. Using the Moving Window Technique (MWT), children aged 5-12 years and adults (N = 129) explored faces with a mouse-controlled window in an emotion recognition task. An age-related increase in attention to the left eye emerged at age 11-12 years and reached significance in adulthood. This left-eye bias is consistent with previous eye tracking research and findings of a perceptual bias for the left side of faces. These results suggest that a strategic attentional bias to the left eye begins to emerge at age 11-12 years and is likely established sometime in adolescence.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada. ebirming@sfu.ca
authors.forename: Elina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Birmingham
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meixner
authors.forename: Grace
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Iarocci
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kanan
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smilek
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult