Bruce M. Hood

Adult's Eyes Trigger Shifts of Visual Attention in Human Infants

Two experiments examined whether infants shift their visual attention in the direction toward which an adults eyes turn. A computerized modification of previous joint-attention paradigms revealed that infants as young as 3 months attend in the same direction as the eyes of a digitized adult face. This attention shift was indicated by the latency and direction of their orienting to peripheral probes presented after the face was extinguished. A second experiment found a similar influence of direction of perceived gaze, but also that less peripheral orienting occurred if the central face remained visible during presentation of the probe. This may explain why attention shifts triggered by gaze perception have been difficult to observe in infants using previous naturalistic procedures. Our new method reveals both that direction of perceived gaze can be discriminated by young infants and that this perception triggers corresponding shifts of their own attention.

Are you looking at me? Eye gaze and person perception.

Previous research has highlighted the pivotal role played by gaze detection and interpretation in the development of social cognition. Extending work of this kind, the present research investigated the effects of eye gaze on basic aspects of the person-perception process, namely, person construal and the extraction of category-related knowledge from semantic memory. It was anticipated that gaze direction would moderate the efficiency of the mental operations through which these social-cognitive products are generated. Specifically, eye gaze was expected to influence both the speed with which targets could be categorized as men and women and the rate at which associated stereotypic material could be accessed from semantic memory. The results of two experiments supported these predictions: Targets with nondeviated (i.e., direct) eye gaze elicited facilitated categorical responses. The implications of these findings for recent treatments of person perception are considered.

Look into my eyes: Gaze direction and person memory

The current research considered the effects of gaze direction on a fundamental aspect of social cogition: person memory. It was anticipated that a persons direction of gaze (i.e., direct or averted) would impact his or her subsequent memorability, such that recognition would be enhanced for targets previously displaying direct gaze. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with faces displaying either direct or averted gaze in a person‐classification (i.e., conceptual) task. Then, in a surprise memory test, they were required to report whether a presented face had been seen before. As expected, a recognition advantage was observed for targets displaying direct gaze during the initial classification task. This finding was replicated and extended in a second experiment in which participants initially reported the spatial location (i.e., perceptual task) of each face. We consider the implications of these findings for basic aspects of social‐cognitive functioning and person perception.

Eye remember you: the effects of gaze direction on face recognition in children and adults

Children and adults were tested on a forced-choice face recognition task in which the direction of eye gaze was manipulated over the course of the initial presentation and subsequent test phase of the experiment. To establish the effects of gaze direction on the encoding process, participants were presented with to-be-studied faces displaying either direct or deviated gaze (i.e. encoding manipulation). At test, all the faces depicted persons with their eyes closed. To investigate the effects of gaze direction on the efficiency of the retrieval process, a second condition (i.e. retrieval manipulation) was run in which target faces were presented initially with eyes closed and tested with either direct or deviated gaze. The results revealed the encoding advantages enjoyed by faces with direct gaze was present for both children and adults. Faces with direct gaze were also recognized better than faces with deviated gaze at retrieval, although this effect was most pronounced for adults. Finally, the advantage for direct gaze over deviated gaze at encoding was greater than the advantage for direct gaze over deviated gaze at retrieval. We consider the theoretical implications of these findings.

Gravity Rules for 2- to 4-Year-Olds?.

to find a toy ball that was dropped down one of potentially three opaque tubes that could be interwoven to produce a visuospatial maze. Performance on the task was significantly related to the number of tubes with older children solving configurations with more tubes than younger children. When transparent tubes were used, children found the ball but this success did not transfer back to opaque trials. In addition to the relation between performance on the task and age, a significant phenomenon was discovered in that errors were consistently directed to the location directly below the last seen position of the ball. The developmental trend may reflect both a partial understanding of the contingency between tubes and hiding locations as well as an increase in the ability to overcome the prepotent response to search in the gravity/aligned location. The studies reported in this article developed out of two different developmental issues. Initially, the plan was to develop a new measure of spatial reasoning for preschool children that did not involve fine motor skill. This was to be achieved by using a novel invisible-displacement task involving the force of gravity. However, this task revealed the second developmental

Looking and Search Measures of Object Knowledge in Preschool Children.

The same preschoolers were tested on an observation task and a search task involving the invisible displacement of an object. In the observation task, children watched an object roll behind a screen from which protruded the top of a solid wall. Analyses revealed significantly longer looking to impossible than to possible outcomes in all children. In search, the child was allowed to retrieve the rolled object. Most 3-year-olds but significantly fewer 2.5-year-olds completed the search successfully. An unexpected sex difference was found, with boys outperforming girls. Search performance was not associated with observation measures. The findings indicate that children visually discriminate violations of solidity but that this sensitivity is not associated with successful search performance.

Children prefer certain individuals over perfect duplicates

Adults value certain unique individuals--such as artwork, sentimental possessions, and memorabilia--more than perfect duplicates. Here we explore the origins of this bias in young children, by using a conjurers illusion where we appear to produce identical copies of real-world objects. In Study 1, young children were less likely to accept an identical replacement for an attachment object than for a favorite toy. In Study 2, children often valued a personal possession of Queen Elizabeth II more than an identical copy, but showed no such bias for another sort of valuable object. These findings suggest that young children develop attachments to individuals that are independent of any perceptible properties that the individuals possess.

The Effect of Creative Labor on Property-Ownership Transfer by Preschool Children and Adults

Recognizing property ownership is of critical importance in social interactions, but little is known about how and when this attribute emerges. We investigated whether preschool children and adults believe that ownership of one person’s property is transferred to a second person following the second person’s investment of creative labor in that property. In our study, an experimenter and a participant borrowed modeling-clay objects from each other to mold into new objects. Participants were more likely to transfer ownership to the second individual after he or she invested creative labor in the object than after any other manipulations (holding the object, making small changes to it). This effect was significantly stronger in preschool children than in adults. Duration of manipulation had no effect on property-ownership transfer. Changes in the object’s identity acted only as a secondary cue for children. We conclude that ownership is transferred after an investment of creative labor and that determining property ownership may be an intuitive process that emerges in early childhood.

Children with autism are neither systematic nor optimal foragers

It is well established that children with autism often show outstanding visual search skills. To date, however, no study has tested whether these skills, usually assessed on a table-top or computer, translate to more true-to-life settings. One prominent account of autism, Baron-Cohens “systemizing” theory, gives us good reason to suspect that they should. In this study, we tested whether autistic childrens exceptional skills at small-scale search extend to a large-scale environment and, in so doing, tested key claims of the systemizing account. Twenty school-age children with autism and 20 age- and ability-matched typical children took part in a large-scale search task in the “foraging room”: a purpose-built laboratory, with numerous possible search locations embedded into the floor. Children were instructed to search an array of 16 (green) locations to find the hidden (red) target as quickly as possible. The distribution of target locations was manipulated so that they appeared on one side of the midline for 80% of trials. Contrary to predictions of the systemizing account, autistic childrens search behavior was much less efficient than that of typical children: they showed reduced sensitivity to the statistical properties of the search array, and furthermore, their search patterns were strikingly less optimal and less systematic. The nature of large-scale search behavior in autism cannot therefore be explained by a facility for systemizing. Rather, children with autism showed difficulties exploring and exploiting the large-scale space, which might instead be attributed to constraints (rather than benefits) in their cognitive repertoire.

Is Visual Search Really like Foraging

The visual-search paradigm provides a controlled and easy to implement experimental situation in which to study the search process. However, little work has been carried out in humans to investigate the extent to which traditional visual-search tasks are similar to more general search or foraging. Here we report results from a task in which search involves walking around a room and leaning down to inspect individual locations. Consistent with more traditional search tasks, search time increases linearly with display size, and the target-present to target-absent search slope is 1:2. However, although rechecking of locations did occur, compared to more traditional search it was relatively rare, suggesting an increased role for memory.