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Body weight and attentional capture in children
Shuma Tsurumi1,2, So Kanazawa3, Masami K Yamaguchi4
1Department of Psychology, Hokkaido University, N10 W7, Kita, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060- 0810, Japan. stsurumi@let.hokudai.ac.jp.
Experimental Brain Research
|April 25, 2025
Summary
Young children
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Body Image Research
Background:
- Infants recognize typical/atypical bodies and multisensory body events early.
- Body image development begins in infancy.
- Recognition of numerical own body information, like weight, is less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if numerical representations of body weight capture visual attention in young children.
- To explore sex differences in attentional bias towards body weight information.
Main Methods:
- Employed an attentional capture task with 44 Japanese children (8-9 years old).
- Children identified a target in a visual stream preceded by their own body weight number.
- Data collected on attentional bias towards numerical body weight information.
Main Results:
- Girls showed a significant attentional bias towards their own body weight number.
- Boys did not exhibit a similar attentional bias towards their body weight.
- Girls demonstrated attentional capture by body weight information compared to boys.
Conclusions:
- Numerical body weight information can capture visual attention in children.
- Sex differences exist in the attentional processing of body weight information during childhood.
- This study highlights early attentional biases related to body weight in girls.
