The Dynamics of Perception in Caregiving: How Infants Change the Way We See the World

How do caregivers perceive the world around their infants? A virtual task was created to assess how the perception of potential threats is influenced by parental experience and an infant's capacity to explore. Sixty-five parents (M_age = 35.52, %female = 61.54, %White = 84.62) and 31 non-parents (M_age = 19.52, %female = 74.19, %White = 32.26) were recruited from Ithaca, NY, a mid-sized city in the northeastern region of the United States. All data were collected between October 2021 and October 2023. Participants completed a computer-based task in which infants of varying locomotor maturity explored near a roadside (Study 1). To assess the potency of infantile cues, 16 parents (M_age = 34.56, %female = 68.75, %White = 81.25) and 21 non-parents (M_age = 19.10, %female = 71.43, %White = 19.05) completed the task with a virtual robot and dog instead (Study 2). Adults were quicker to detect traffic and rated it as moving faster in the presence of a locomoting infant, suggesting that infantile appearance and locomotor behavior shape adults' perceptual experiences.