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Developmental Psychology

Alyson J. Chroust

Selected Works

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Psychology

The Whole Picture: Body Posture Recognition In Infancy, Alyson J. Hock Sep 2017

The Whole Picture: Body Posture Recognition In Infancy, Alyson J. Hock

Alyson J. Chroust

Holistic image processing is tied to expertise and is characteristic of face and body processing by adults. Infants process faces holistically, but it is unknown whether infants process body information holistically. In the present study, we examined whether infants discriminate changes in body posture holistically. Body posture is an important nonverbal cue that signals emotion, intention, and goals of others even from a distance. In the current study, infants were tested for discrimination between body postures that differ in limb orientations in three conditions: in the context of the whole body, with just the limbs that change orientation, or with …

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Processing Of Spatial Information In Social And Non-Social Stimuli By Opioid-Exposed And Non-Exposed Newborns, Alyson J. Hock Sep 2017

Processing Of Spatial Information In Social And Non-Social Stimuli By Opioid-Exposed And Non-Exposed Newborns, Alyson J. Hock

Alyson J. Chroust

The ability to process information from faces is important for effective social functioning. Adults are experts at this function. It has been suggested that the encoding of configural spatial relations among facial features (e.g., the distance between the eyes) contributes to this expertise. I investigated the developmental origin of face processing expertise by studying typically developing newborns’ sensitivity to the distance between the eyes and between the nose and the mouth in face stimuli. Further, I investigated whether prenatal opioid exposure is associated with neonates’ processing of spatial information in social and non-social stimuli. Infants with prenatal opioid-exposure are at …

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The Development Of Attention To Dynamic Facial Emotions, Alison Heck, Alyson J. Hock, Hannah White, Rachel Jubran, Ramesh S. Bhatt Jun 2016

The Development Of Attention To Dynamic Facial Emotions, Alison Heck, Alyson J. Hock, Hannah White, Rachel Jubran, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Alyson J. Chroust

Appropriate processing of emotions is paramount for successful social functioning. Adults’ enhanced attention to negative emotions such as fear is thought to be a critical aspect of this adaptive functioning. Prior studies indicate that increased attention to fear relative to positive or neutral emotions begins at around 7 months of age, and it has been suggested that this negativity bias is related to self-locomotion. However, these studies mostly used static faces, potentially limiting information available to the infants. In the current study, 3.5-month-olds (n = 24) and 5-month-olds (n = 24) were exposed to dynamic faces expressing fear, happy, or neutral …

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The Whole Picture: Holistic Body Posture Recognition In Infancy, Alyson J. Hock, Hannah White, Rachel Jubran, Ramesh S. Bhatt Mar 2016

The Whole Picture: Holistic Body Posture Recognition In Infancy, Alyson J. Hock, Hannah White, Rachel Jubran, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Alyson J. Chroust

Holistic processing is tied to expertise and is characteristic of face and body perception by adults. Infants process faces holistically, but it is unknown whether they process body information holistically. In the present study, infants were tested for discrimination between body postures that differed in limb orientations in three conditions: in the context of the whole body, with just the isolated limbs that changed orientation, or with the limbs in the context of scrambled body parts. Five- and 9-month-olds discriminated between whole-body postures, but failed in the isolated-part and scrambled-body conditions, demonstrating holistic processing of information from bodies. These results …

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The Development Of Sex Category Representation In Infancy: Matching Of Faces And Bodies, Alyson J. Chroust, Ashley Kangas, Nicole Zieber, Ramesh S. Bhatt Feb 2015

The Development Of Sex Category Representation In Infancy: Matching Of Faces And Bodies, Alyson J. Chroust, Ashley Kangas, Nicole Zieber, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Alyson J. Chroust

Sex is a significant social category, and adults derive information about it from both faces and bodies. Research indicates that young infants process sex category information in faces. However, no prior study has examined whether infants derive sex categories from bodies and match faces and bodies in terms of sex. In the current study, 5-month-olds exhibited a preference between sex congruent (face and body of the same sex) versus sex-incongruent (face and body belonging to different genders) images. In contrast, 3.5-month-olds failed to exhibit a preference. Thus, 5-month-olds process sex information from bodies and match it to facial information. However, …

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Perceptual Specialization And Configural Face Processing In Infancy, Nicole Zieber, Ashley Kangas, Alyson J. Hock, Angela Hayden, Rebecca Collins, Henrietta Bada, Jane E. Joseph, Ramesh S. Bhatt Oct 2013

Perceptual Specialization And Configural Face Processing In Infancy, Nicole Zieber, Ashley Kangas, Alyson J. Hock, Angela Hayden, Rebecca Collins, Henrietta Bada, Jane E. Joseph, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Alyson J. Chroust

Adults’ face processing expertise includes sensitivity to second-order configural information (spatial relations among features such as distance between eyes). Prior research indicates that infants process this information in female faces. In the current experiments, 9-month-olds discriminated spacing changes in upright human male and monkey faces but not in inverted faces. However, they failed to process matching changes in upright house stimuli. A similar pattern of performance was exhibited by 5-month-olds. Thus, 5- and 9-month-olds exhibited specialization by processing configural information in upright primate faces but not in houses or inverted faces. This finding suggests that, even early in life, infants …

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