TY - JOUR
T1 - Visual scanning of male and female bodies in infancy
AU - White, Hannah
AU - Hock, Alyson
AU - Jubran, Rachel
AU - Heck, Alison
AU - Bhatt, Ramesh S.
N1 - Systematic scanning of images indicates efficient processing of relevant information. * Adults exhibit sex-specific scanning of the breast and leg regions of human images. * We found that 3.5- and 6.5-month-olds preferentially scan the torsos of females and legs of males. * Young infants systematically process cues that are significant sex-related cues in adulthood.
PY - 2018/2
Y1 - 2018/2
N2 - This study addressed the development of attention to information that is socially relevant to adults by examining infants’ (N = 64) scanning patterns of male and female bodies. Infants exhibited systematic attention to regions associated with sex-related scanning by adults, with 3.5- and 6.5-month-olds looking longer at the torsos of females than of males and looking longer at the legs of males than of females. However, this pattern of looking was not found when infants were tested on headless bodies in Experiment 2, suggesting that infants’ differential gaze pattern in Experiment 1 was not due to low-level stimulus features, such as clothing, and also indicating that facial/head information is necessary for infants to exhibit sex-specific scanning. We discuss implications for models of face and body knowledge development.
AB - This study addressed the development of attention to information that is socially relevant to adults by examining infants’ (N = 64) scanning patterns of male and female bodies. Infants exhibited systematic attention to regions associated with sex-related scanning by adults, with 3.5- and 6.5-month-olds looking longer at the torsos of females than of males and looking longer at the legs of males than of females. However, this pattern of looking was not found when infants were tested on headless bodies in Experiment 2, suggesting that infants’ differential gaze pattern in Experiment 1 was not due to low-level stimulus features, such as clothing, and also indicating that facial/head information is necessary for infants to exhibit sex-specific scanning. We discuss implications for models of face and body knowledge development.
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096517303338
U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.004
M3 - Article
VL - 166
JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
ER -