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Updated: Aug 15, 2025

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Attentional Prioritization of Infant Faces in Parents: The Influence of Parents' Experiences of Care

Micol Gemignani1, Michele Giannotti1, Xenia Schmalz2

  • 1Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Corso Bettini 84, 38068 Rovereto, Italy.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
|January 8, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Parental attention is heightened for infant faces, influenced by sensitive caregiving experiences. Parental involvement and sex did not significantly alter this attention bias towards infant cues.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Parental Behavior

Background:

  • Parental attentional systems prioritize infant faces, impacting cognitive engagement.
  • Factors influencing this attention bias, such as early experiences and parental characteristics, remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To confirm infant faces capture more attention than adult faces.
  • To examine how parental early care experiences affect attention to infant faces.
  • To investigate the role of parental sex and childcare involvement in attention to infant faces.

Main Methods:

  • A modified Go/no-Go task was administered to 51 mothers and 46 fathers.
  • Participants completed sociodemographic, parental acceptance-rejection, and childcare involvement questionnaires.
  • Response times to infant versus adult faces were measured.

Main Results:

  • Parents exhibited slower response times in the presence of infant faces compared to adult faces.
  • Higher perceived maternal acceptance correlated with greater parental engagement with infant cues.
  • Parental sex did not significantly interact with face type when considering childcare involvement.

Conclusions:

  • Infant faces elicit a distinct attentional prioritization in parents.
  • Parental attention to infant cues is modulated by early caregiving experiences, particularly maternal acceptance.
  • Future research should explore experience-based factors influencing parental attention to infants.

Keywords:
Go/no-Go taskattachmentattentioninfantinvolvementparentingparenting styles

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