Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

Further Evidence Of Early Development Of Attention To Dynamic Facial Emotions: Reply To Grossmann And Jessen, Alison Heck, Alyson J. Hock, Hannah B. White, Rachel L. Jubran, Ramesh S. Bhatt

Psychology Faculty Publications

Adults exhibit enhanced attention to negative emotions like fear, which is thought to be an adaptive reaction to emotional information. Previous research, mostly conducted with static faces, suggests that infants exhibit an attentional bias toward fearful faces only at around 7 months of age. In a recent study (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2016, Vol. 147, pp. 100–110), we found that 5-month-olds also exhibit heightened attention to fear when tested with dynamic face videos. This indication of an earlier development of an attention bias to fear raises questions about developmental mechanisms that have been proposed to underlie this …

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

Psychology Faculty Works

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 …

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

Alyson J. Chroust