Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 7, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
Asymmetry in infants' selective attention to facial features during visual processing of infant-directed speech
Nicholas A Smith1, Colleen R Gibilisco, Rachel E Meisinger
1Perceptual Development Laboratory, Boys Town National Research Hospital Omaha, NE, USA.
Abstract:
Two experiments used eye tracking to examine how infant and adult observers distribute their eye gaze on videos of a mother producing infant- and adult-directed speech. Both groups showed greater attention to the eyes than to the nose and mouth, as well as an asymmetrical focus on the talker's right eye for infant-directed speech stimuli. Observers continued to look more at the talker's apparent right eye when the video stimuli were mirror flipped, suggesting that the asymmetry reflects a perceptual processing bias rather than a stimulus artifact, which may be related to cerebral lateralization of emotion processing.
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