title: Face Detection and the Development of Own-Species Bias in Infant Macaques.
abstract: In visually complex environments, numerous items compete for attention. Infants may exhibit attentional efficiency-privileged detection, attention capture, and holding-for face-like stimuli. However, it remains unknown when these biases develop and what role, if any, experience plays in this emerging skill. Here, nursery-reared infant macaques' (Macaca mulatta; n = 10) attention to faces in 10-item arrays of nonfaces was measured using eye tracking. With limited face experience, 3-week-old monkeys were more likely to detect faces and looked longer at faces compared to nonfaces, suggesting a robust face detection system. By 3 months, after peer exposure, infants looked faster to conspecific faces but not heterospecific faces, suggesting an own-species bias in face attention capture, consistent with perceptual attunement.
authors.affiliation: University of Miami.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: James Madison University.
authors.forename: Krisztina V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Jakobsen
authors.affiliation: Université Grenoble Alpes.
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Damon
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Suomi
authors.affiliation: Università di Parma.
authors.forename: Pier F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health.
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paukner
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000070379:Attentional Bias / Q000502:physiology*; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D008251:Macaca / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception