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Gonçalves JL, Fuertes M, Silva S, Lopes-dos-Santos P, Ferreira-Santos F. Differential effects of attachment security on visual fixation to facial expressions of emotion in 14-month-old infants: an eye-tracking study. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1302657. [PMID: 38449748 PMCID: PMC10917067 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1302657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2023] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction Models of attachment and information processing suggest that the attention infants allocate to social information might occur in a schema-driven processing manner according to their attachment pattern. A major source of social information for infants consists of facial expressions of emotion. We tested for differences in attention to facial expressions and emotional discrimination between infants classified as securely attached (B), insecure-avoidant (A), and insecure-resistant (C). Methods Sixty-one 14-month-old infants participated in the Strange Situation Procedure and an experimental task of Visual Habituation and Visual Paired-Comparison Task (VPC). In the Habituation phase, a Low-Arousal Happy face (habituation face) was presented followed by a VPC task of 6 trials composed of two contrasting emotional faces always involving the same actress: the one used in habituation (trial old face) and a new one (trial new face) portraying changes in valence (Low-Arousal Angry face), arousal (High-Arousal Happy face), or valence + arousal (High-Arousal Angry face). Measures of fixation time (FT) and number of fixations (FC) were obtained for the habituation face, the trial old face, the trial new face, and the difference between the trial old face and the trial new face using an eye-tracking system. Results We found a higher FT and FC for the trial new face when compared with the trial old face, regardless of the emotional condition (valence, arousal, valence + arousal contrasts), suggesting that 14-month-old infants were able to discriminate different emotional faces. However, this effect differed according to attachment pattern: resistant-attached infants (C) had significantly higher FT and FC for the new face than patterns B and A, indicating they may remain hypervigilant toward emotional change. On the contrary, avoidant infants (A) revealed significantly longer looking times to the trial old face, suggesting overall avoidance of novel expressions and thus less sensitivity to emotional change. Discussion Overall, these findings corroborate that attachment is associated with infants' social information processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joana L. Gonçalves
- Center for Research in Psychology for Positive Development, Lusíada University, Porto, Portugal
| | - Marina Fuertes
- Center for Psychology at University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- Escola Superior de Educação, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Susana Silva
- Neurocognition and Language Research Group, Center for Psychology at University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Pedro Lopes-dos-Santos
- Center for Psychology at University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- Faculty of Psychology and Education Science, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
| | - Fernando Ferreira-Santos
- Faculty of Psychology and Education Science, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
- Laboratory of Neuropsychophysiology, Faculty of Psychology and Education Science, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
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Gredebäck G, Dorji N, Sen U, Nyström P, Hellberg J, Wangchuk. Context dependent cognitive development in Bhutanese children. Sci Rep 2023; 13:19875. [PMID: 37963958 PMCID: PMC10645759 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47254-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 11/16/2023] Open
Abstract
We assessed risk/protective factors for cognitive development of Bhutanese children (504 3-5 year-olds, 49% girls, major ethnicities Ngalop 26%, Tshangla 30%, Lhotsampa 34%) using a non-verbal test of cognitive capacity (SON-R) and primary caregiver interviews. Cognitive capacity was related to the family's SES and whether the family belonged to the primary Buddhist majority ethnic groups (Ngalop or Tshangla) or primarily Hindu minorities (Lhotsampa). In majority families more engagement in Buddhist practices was associated with higher cognitive capacity in children. Minority children were more impacted by parents autonomous-relatedness values. Results demonstrate that cognitive development is dependent on the financial and educational context of the family, societal events, and culture specific risk/protective factors that differ across sub-groups (majority/minority, culture/religion).
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Nidup Dorji
- Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan, Thimphu, Bhutan
| | - Umay Sen
- Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | | | | | - Wangchuk
- Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan, Thimphu, Bhutan
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Damon F, Quinn PC, Méary D, Pascalis O. Asymmetrical responding to male versus female other-race categories in 9- to 12-month-old infants. Br J Psychol 2022; 114 Suppl 1:71-93. [PMID: 35808935 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12582] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2021] [Revised: 06/08/2022] [Accepted: 06/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Faces can be categorized along various dimensions including gender or race, an ability developing in infancy. Infant categorization studies have focused on facial attributes in isolation, but the interaction between these attributes remains poorly understood. Experiment 1 examined gender categorization of other-race faces in 9- and 12-month-old White infants. Nine- and 12-month-olds were familiarized with Asian male or female faces, and tested with a novel exemplar from the familiarized category paired with a novel exemplar from a novel category. Both age groups showed novel category preferences for novel Asian female faces after familiarization with Asian male faces, but showed no novel category preference for novel Asian male faces after familiarization with Asian female faces. This categorization asymmetry was not due to a spontaneous preference hindering novel category reaction (Experiment 2), and both age groups displayed difficulty discriminating among male, but not female, other-race faces (Experiment 3). These results indicate that category formation for male other-race faces is mediated by categorical perception. Overall, the findings suggest that even by 12 months of age, infants are not fully able to form gender category representations of other-race faces, responding categorically to male, but not female, other-race faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice Damon
- Center for Taste, Smell & Feeding Behavior, Development of Olfactory Communication & Cognition Laboratory, Université de Bourgogne, CNRS, Inrae, Institut Agro Dijon, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France
| | - Paul C Quinn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, USA
| | - David Méary
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, Grenoble, France.,LPNC, CNRS, Grenoble, France
| | - Olivier Pascalis
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, Grenoble, France.,LPNC, CNRS, Grenoble, France
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Juvrud J, Haas SA, Fox NA, Gredebäck G. Infants' Selective Visual Attention Is Dependent on Maternal Affect and Emotional Context. Front Psychol 2021; 12:700272. [PMID: 34603127 PMCID: PMC8481686 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700272] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Development of selective attention during the first year of life is critical to cognitive and socio-emotional skills. It is also a period that the average child’s interactions with their mother dominate their social environment. This study examined how maternal negative affect and an emotion face prime (mother/stranger) jointly effect selective visual attention. Results from linear mixed-effects modeling showed that 9-month olds (N=70) were faster to find a visual search target after viewing a fearful face (regardless of familiarity) or their mother’s angry face. For mothers with high negative affect, infants’ attention was further impacted by fearful faces, resulting in faster search times. Face emotion interacted with mother’s negative affect, demonstrating a capacity to influence what infants attend in their environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Juvrud
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Sara A Haas
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.,Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Nathan A Fox
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States
| | - Gustaf Gredebäck
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
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Damon F, Quinn PC, Pascalis O. When novelty prevails on familiarity: Visual biases for child versus infant faces in 3.5- to 12-month-olds. J Exp Child Psychol 2021; 210:105174. [PMID: 34144347 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105174] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Revised: 03/14/2021] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The current study examined the influence of everyday perceptual experience with infant and child faces on the shaping of visual biases for faces in 3.5-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants. In Experiment 1, infants were presented with pairs of photographs of unfamiliar child and infant faces. Four groups with differential experience with infant and child faces were composed from parents' reports of daily exposure with infants and children (no experience, infant face experience, child face experience, and both infant and child face experience) to assess influence of experience on face preferences. Results showed that infants from all age groups displayed a bias for the novel category of faces in relation to their previous exposure to infant and child faces. In Experiment 2, this pattern of visual attention was reversed in infants presented with pictures of personally familiar child faces (i.e., older siblings) compared with unfamiliar infant faces, especially in older infants. These results suggest that allocation of attention for novelty can supersede familiarity biases for faces depending on experience and highlight that multiple factors drive infant visual behavior in responding to the social world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice Damon
- Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, AgroSup Dijon, CNRS, INRAE, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, F-21000 Dijon, France.
| | - Paul C Quinn
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
| | - Olivier Pascalis
- University of Grenoble Alpes, Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition, F-38000 Grenoble, France; Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition, CNRS, F-38000 Grenoble, France
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Gandolfo M, Downing PE. Asymmetric visual representation of sex from human body shape. Cognition 2020; 205:104436. [PMID: 32919115 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2020] [Revised: 08/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
We efficiently infer others' states and traits from their appearance, and these inferences powerfully shape our social behaviour. One key trait is sex, which is strongly cued by the appearance of the body. What are the visual representations that link body shape to sex? Previous studies of visual sex judgment tasks find observers have a bias to report "male", particularly for ambiguous stimuli. This finding implies a representational asymmetry - that for the processes that generate a sex percept, the default output is "male", and "female" is determined by the presence of additional perceptual evidence. That is, female body shapes are positively coded by reference to a male default shape. This perspective makes a novel prediction in line with Treisman's studies of visual search asymmetries: female body targets should be more readily detected amongst male distractors than vice versa. Across 10 experiments (N = 32 each) we confirmed this prediction and ruled out alternative low-level explanations. The asymmetry was found with profile and frontal body silhouettes, frontal photographs, and schematised icons. Low-level confounds were controlled by balancing silhouette images for size and homogeneity, and by matching physical properties of photographs. The female advantage was nulled for inverted icons, but intact for inverted photographs, suggesting reliance on distinct cues to sex for different body depictions. Together, these findings demonstrate a principle of the perceptual coding that links bodily appearance with a significant social trait: the female body shape is coded as an extension of a male default. We conclude by offering a visual experience account of how these asymmetric representations arise in the first place.
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