Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior
07:09

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Published on: November 14, 2018

Gaze following as a function of affective expression in 3-, 6- and 9-month-old infants

Isabel De Groote1, Herbert Roeyers, Tricia Striano

  • 1Research Group Developmental Disorders, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Degrooteisabel@yahoo.com <Degrooteisabel@yahoo.com>

Infant Behavior & Development
|August 9, 2007
PubMed

Insights

Infant gaze following improves with age. While older infants showed better gaze following, adult emotions did not significantly influence this behavior, suggesting developmental changes in emotion processing.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Infant cognition
  • Social cognition

Background:

  • Gaze following is a crucial social-cognitive skill in infants.
  • Understanding how affective expression influences early social attention is important for developmental research.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the influence of adult affective expression on gaze following in 3-, 6-, and 9-month-old infants.
  • To examine developmental changes in infant gaze following and its relation to emotional cues.

Main Methods:

  • Observational study design.
  • Infants aged 3, 6, and 9 months were presented with adult stimuli displaying affective expressions.
  • Gaze following behavior was recorded and analyzed across age groups.

Main Results:

  • Gaze following ability significantly increased with infant age.
  • No significant differential influence of adult affective expression on infant gaze following was detected.
  • Evidence suggests a developmental shift in emotion processing rather than a direct effect of affect on gaze following.

Conclusions:

  • Infant gaze following demonstrates robust developmental progression.
  • The findings suggest that developmental changes in emotion processing, not affective cues directly, modulate gaze following in early infancy.

More Related Videos

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm06:07

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Eye Tracking Young Children with Autism09:03

Eye Tracking Young Children with Autism

Published on: March 27, 2012

Related Concept Videos

Facial Feedback Hypothesis01:24

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

Charles Darwin proposed that facial expressions are an evolutionary adaptation for communication. He argued that these expressions are not influenced by culture but are universal across species. For example, a snarling expression with exposed teeth signals a threat in many animals, including humans. Darwin also suggested that displaying an emotion can intensify the feeling. Smiling, for example, could enhance one's sense of happiness. This idea laid the foundation for understanding the role of...
Socioemotional Development during Infancy01:30

Socioemotional Development during Infancy

Socio-emotional development in infancy is primarily shaped by early emotional responses and social connections, with temperament playing a central role. Temperament refers to the consistent patterns in an individual's emotional and behavioral responses, observable even in infancy. By examining temperament, researchers can better understand an infant's unique ways of interacting with the world, influencing subsequent personality and socio-emotional growth.
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...
Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development01:14

Piaget's Stage 1 of Cognitive Development

The sensorimotor stage, the initial phase of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development, spans the first two years of a child's life. During this period, infants actively engage with their surroundings, building cognitive awareness through direct interaction with the world. This interaction is primarily based on sensory perception and motor actions, allowing infants to gradually understand basic physical properties and predict how objects interact within their environment.
Exploration...
Nonconscious Mimicry01:13

Nonconscious Mimicry

Nonconscious mimicry occurs when individuals alter their mannerisms to match the behaviors and expressions of those nearby, without intention.
Therapeutic Communication01:30

Therapeutic Communication

Communication is a lifelong learning process. Through therapeutic communication, nurses can collect relevant assessment data, provide education and counseling, and interact during nursing interventions. Sending and receiving messages occur through verbal and nonverbal communication techniques and can happen separately or simultaneously.
Verbal communication depends on language or a prescribed way of using words so that people can share information effectively. The critical aspects of verbal...