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Attentional bias assessed by a facial expression cuing paradigm in infants

Atsuko Nakagawa1, Masune Sukigara2

  • 1Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagoya City University, 1 Yamanohata, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya, 467-8501, Japan. nakagawa@hum.nagoya-cu.ac.jp.

Scientific Reports
|January 13, 2019
PubMed

Insights

Infants show faster responses to fearful cues, indicating attentional bias. By 12 months, fearful expressions may prolong attention disengagement, linking attentional bias to temperament.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Infant Perception

Background:

  • Understanding infants' early attentional biases is crucial for cognitive and emotional development.
  • Fearful facial expressions are significant social cues that may elicit specific attentional responses in infants.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate attentional bias towards fearful facial expressions in 6- and 12-month-old infants.
  • To examine age-related differences and the influence of temperament on attentional bias.

Main Methods:

  • A facial expression cueing paradigm was used with 6- and 12-month-old infants.
  • Infants' saccadic eye movements were recorded in response to happy, fearful, or neutral facial cues (congruent and incongruent).
  • Temperamental disposition was assessed using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised.

Main Results:

  • Infants responded faster to fearful cues compared to happy cues (fearful vigilance).
  • At 12 months, incongruent fearful cues prolonged attentional disengagement compared to happy cues.
  • Infants' attentional bias at 12 months correlated with high temperamental orienting scores.

Conclusions:

  • Infants exhibit an attentional bias towards fearful facial expressions, with age-related differences in processing.
  • Fearful expressions may influence attentional disengagement and narrowing in older infants.
  • Attentional bias is partly associated with temperamental disposition in infants, highlighting the role of attentional networks in socio-cognitive development.

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