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Face detection in complex visual displays: an eye-tracking study with 3- and 6-month-old infants and adults
Elisa Di Giorgio1, Chiara Turati, Gianmarco Altoè
1Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy. elisa.digiorgio@unipd.it
Insights
Face detection in visual displays develops by 6 months of age. While 6-month-olds and adults attend to faces, 3-month-olds do not, indicating a developmental shift in processing social stimuli.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Visual perception
Background:
- Infants show an early interest in faces, crucial for social development.
- Understanding face perception development informs theories of cognitive and social learning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate face detection and attention in 3- and 6-month-old infants and adults.
- To determine the age at which faces capture and hold visual attention among distractors.
Main Methods:
- Modified visual search paradigm with eye-tracking.
- Presentation of visual displays with a target face among heterogeneous objects.
- Participants: 43 individuals (3-month-olds, 6-month-olds, adults).
Main Results:
- Adults and 6-month-olds demonstrated sustained attention to faces.
- 3-month-olds did not show preferential attention to faces over objects.
- Face stimuli effectively captured and maintained attention in older infants and adults.
Conclusions:
- Face detection and attention capabilities mature between 3 and 6 months of age.
- Social stimuli possess a strong capacity to attract and retain visual attention in developing humans.
- Findings contribute to understanding early visual processing of social cues.
Abstract:
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.
