Abstract
The unique morphology of human eyes enables gaze communication at various ranges of interpersonal distance. Although gaze communication contributes to infants’ social development, little is known about how infant-parent distance affects infants’ visual experience in daily gaze communication. The present study conducted longitudinal observations of infant-parent face-to-face interactions in the home environment as 5 infants aged from 10 to 15.5 months. Using head-mounted eye trackers worn by parents, we evaluated infants’ daily visual experience of 3138 eye contact scenes recorded from the infants’ second-person perspective. The results of a hierarchical Bayesian statistical analysis suggest that certain levels of interpersonal distance afforded smooth interaction with eye contact. Eye contacts were not likely to be exchanged when the infant and parent were too close or too far apart. The number of continuing eye contacts showed an inverse U-shaped pattern with interpersonal distance, regardless of whether the eye contact was initiated by the infant or the parent. However, the interpersonal distance was larger when the infant initiated the eye contact than when the parent initiated it, suggesting that interpersonal distance affects the infant’s and parent’s social look differently. Overall, the present study indicates that interpersonal distance modulates infant-parent gaze communication.
Highlights
The unique morphology of human eyes enables gaze communication at various ranges of interpersonal distance
Using head-mounted eye trackers worn by parents, we evaluated infants’ daily visual experience of 3138 eye contact scenes recorded from the infants’ second-person perspective
Analysis 1 was intended to estimate the factors affecting how many times eye contacts were exchanged between infant and parent, and the response variable was the number of eye contact bout (EC bout) in each EC session following a negative binomial distribution
Summary
The unique morphology of human eyes enables gaze communication at various ranges of interpersonal distance. Deficits in eye contact are a hallmark of autism, and infants later diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) show a decreased level of eye contact from 2 to 6 months of age[6] These studies indicate that gaze communication is important for shaping infants’ developmental trajectory. When infants interact with objects, manual action with their short arms often creates views in which a single object is visually dominant; this process is related to advances in object name learning[11,12] These studies showed how infants’ visual experiences are affected by the infant’s body, little is known about how infants’ visual experiences in gaze communication are affected by the spatial disposition between the infant and the environment, for example, infant-parent distance
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
