Social threat processing in adults and children: Faster orienting to, but shorter dwell time on, angry faces during visual search.

ABSTRACT: Attention to emotional signals conveyed by others is critical for gleaning information about potential social partners and the larger social context. Children appear to detect social threats (e.g., angry faces) faster than non-threatening social signals (e.g., neutral faces). However, methods that rely on behavioral responses alone are limited in identifying different attentional processes involved in threat detection or responding. To address this question, we used a visual search paradigm to assess behavioral (i.e., reaction time to select a target image) and attentional (i.e., eye-tracking fixations, saccadic shifts, and dwell time) responses in children (ages 7-10 years old, N = 42) and adults (ages 18-23 years old, N = 46). In doing so, we compared behavioral responding and attentiona

SUBMITTER: Plate RC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11229010 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature