Developmental changes in attention to faces and bodies in static and dynamic scenes.

ABSTRACT: Typically developing individuals show a strong visual preference for faces and face-like stimuli; however, this may come at the expense of attending to bodies or to other aspects of a scene. The primary goal of the present study was to provide additional insight into the development of attentional mechanisms that underlie perception of real people in naturalistic scenes. We examined the looking behaviors of typical children, adolescents, and young adults as they viewed static and dynamic scenes depicting one or more people. Overall, participants showed a bias to attend to faces more than on other parts of the scenes. Adding motion cues led to a reduction in the number, but an increase in the average duration of face fixations in single-character scenes. When multiple characters appeared in

SUBMITTER: Stoesz BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3944146 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature