title: I can't take my eyes off of you: attentional allocation to infant, child, adolescent and adult faces in mothers and non-mothers.
abstract: It has been reported previously that infant faces elicit enhanced attentional allocation compared to adult faces in adult women, particularly when these faces are emotional and when the participants are mothers, as compared to non-mothers [1]. However, it remains unclear whether this increased salience of infant faces as compared to adult faces extends to children older than infant age, or whether infant faces have a unique capacity to elicit preferential attentional allocation compared to juvenile or adult faces. Therefore, this study investigated attentional allocation to a variety of different aged faces (infants, pre-adolescent children, adolescents, and adults) in 84 adult women, 39 of whom were mothers. Consistent with previous findings, infant faces were found to elicit greater attentional engagement compared to pre-adolescent, adolescent, or adult faces, particularly when the infants displayed distress; again, this effect was more pronounced in mothers compared to non-mothers. Pre-adolescent child faces were also found to elicit greater attentional engagement compared to adolescent and adult faces, but only when they displayed distress. No preferential attentional allocation was observed for adolescent compared to adult faces. These findings indicate that cues potentially signalling vulnerability, specifically age and sad affect, interact to engage attention. They point to a potentially important mechanism, which helps facilitate caregiving behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Chloe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thompson-Booth
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Essi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Viding
authors.affiliation: Yale Child Study Center, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
authors.forename: Linda C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Mayes
authors.affiliation: Yale Child Study Center, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
authors.forename: Helena J V
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Rutherford
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hodsoll
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Eamon
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McCrory
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult