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How Infants' Arousal Influences Their Visual Search
Author(s) -
Kleberg Johan Lundin,
del Bianco Teresa,
FalckYtter Terje
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13198
Subject(s) - psychology , arousal , pupillary response , fixation (population genetics) , cognitive psychology , pupillometry , eye movement , developmental psychology , visual perception , pupil , visual search , context (archaeology) , audiology , perception , social psychology , neuroscience , population , medicine , biology , paleontology , demography , sociology
The influence of arousal on visual attention was examined in 6.5‐month‐old infants ( N = 42) in the context of a visual search task. Phasic increases in arousal were induced with brief sounds and measured with pupil dilation. Evidence was found for an inverted U‐shaped relation between pupil dilation amplitude and visual orienting, with highest likelihood of a target fixation at intermediate levels of arousal. Effects were similar for facial stimuli and simple objects. Together, these results contribute to our understanding of the relation between arousal and attention in infancy. The study also demonstrates that infants have a bias to orient to human eyes, even when presented in isolation.