Abstract
It has been reported previously that infant faces elicit enhanced attentional allocation compared to adult faces in adult women, particularly when these faces are emotional and when the participants are mothers, as compared to non-mothers [1]. However, it remains unclear whether this increased salience of infant faces as compared to adult faces extends to children older than infant age, or whether infant faces have a unique capacity to elicit preferential attentional allocation compared to juvenile or adult faces. Therefore, this study investigated attentional allocation to a variety of different aged faces (infants, pre-adolescent children, adolescents, and adults) in 84 adult women, 39 of whom were mothers. Consistent with previous findings, infant faces were found to elicit greater attentional engagement compared to pre-adolescent, adolescent, or adult faces, particularly when the infants displayed distress; again, this effect was more pronounced in mothers compared to non-mothers. Pre-adolescent child faces were also found to elicit greater attentional engagement compared to adolescent and adult faces, but only when they displayed distress. No preferential attentional allocation was observed for adolescent compared to adult faces. These findings indicate that cues potentially signalling vulnerability, specifically age and sad affect, interact to engage attention. They point to a potentially important mechanism, which helps facilitate caregiving behaviour.
Highlights
Faces are a special class of stimuli that preferentially engage our attention, providing valuable information essential for successful social interaction and survival [2,3,4]
We found that reaction time (RT) were slowed in the presence of infant faces compared to faces of adults, adolescents, and children, with greatest task interference when infants displayed sad affect
RTs were slowed in the presence of child faces as compared to adolescent and adult faces, but only when the target child face displayed sadness
Summary
Faces are a special class of stimuli that preferentially engage our attention, providing valuable information essential for successful social interaction and survival [2,3,4]. Slowed responses were interpreted as indicative of enhanced allocation of attention towards processing face age and emotion, rather than responding to the task-specific features of the scene Taken together, these studies further support the contention that infant faces are salient. These findings suggest that parenthood may be associated with a greater empathic response or increased arousal to infant faces [39] Despite this growing body of research demonstrating that infant faces may be a special class of social stimuli, there remains surprisingly scant empirical evidence regarding attentional processing of children’s faces outside of infancy. No differences in attentional processing were predicted in relation to adolescent faces, as this stage was hypothesized to reflect a relatively autonomous developmental period [41]
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.
