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Updated: May 19, 2026
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Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention
Published on: November 16, 2017
Emotional faces capture spatial attention in 5-year-old children
Kit K Elam1, Joshua M Carlson, Lisabeth F Dilalla
1Centre for Research on Children and Families, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. kitelam@gmail.com
Summary
Young children, like adults, direct their spatial attention to emotional faces, especially fearful ones. This attentional bias for emotional expressions may be influenced by genetics and serve an adaptive function.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Behavioral Genetics
Background:
- Emotional facial expressions are crucial social cues.
- Attentional biases towards emotional faces, particularly fearful ones, are observed in infants and adults.
- It remains unclear if young children also exhibit attentional biases to both happy and fearful faces.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate spatial-attentional properties of emotional faces in young children.
- To explore if attentional biases to emotional faces in children are influenced by genetics.
Main Methods:
- A dot-probe task was administered to five-year-old twin pairs.
- Spatial-attentional responses to emotional facial stimuli were measured.
Main Results:
- Children demonstrated a preferential direction of spatial attention towards emotional faces.
- A particular bias was noted for faces presented in the right visual field.
- Preliminary evidence suggests a potential genetic influence on this attentional bias.
Conclusions:
- Young children's spatial attention is drawn to emotional faces, supporting an evolutionarily adaptive function.
- The findings suggest that genetic factors may play a role in mediating attentional biases to emotional stimuli in children.
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