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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.
Insights
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.
Abstract:
The present study examined whether numerical representations of body weight capture visual attention in young children. Developmental studies showed that even newborn infants could distinguish between typical and atypical human bodies, and infants aged around six months detect multisensory events occurring on their bodies. These findings suggest that the body image develops earlier and continues to establish. However, the development of recognition of numerical own body information such as body weight is less understood. Therefore, we employed an attentional capture task where children identified a target embedded in a visual stream, preceded by their body weight number presented before the target. A total of 44 Japanese children (ages 8-9 years; equal number of boys and girls) participated. Results indicated that girls exhibited attentional bias toward their weight, whereas boys did not. Compared to boys, girls showed the attentional capture of body weight.
