The influence of familiarity on explicit eye gaze judgement in preschoolers
- Author(s)
- Christine Michel, Stefanie Hoehl, Tricia Striano
- Abstract
The current study explores the influence of familiarity on explicit eye gaze judgement in preschoolers. We introduce reaction times for touches as a new measure for children studies. Children aged four–six years saw either their caregiver's face or a stranger's face looking at an object or away from it. Children were asked to touch the face that was looking at the object and reaction times to correct touches were measured. Children reacted faster to strangers' faces than to their caregivers' faces. This may indicate that preschoolers used the face of a stranger more effectively as a source of information about the environment and for this reason detected the eye gaze-object relationship faster. In addition, children's reactions were faster in a nonsocial shape-matching task than in the social eye gaze-judgement task. The applied paradigm is appropriate to further investigate the development and influencing factors of explicit eye gaze judgements in preschoolers.
- Organisation(s)
- External organisation(s)
- Scientific Software Center, City University of New York
- Journal
- European Journal of Developmental Psychology
- Volume
- 11
- Pages
- 344-355
- No. of pages
- 12
- ISSN
- 1740-5629
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2013.832670
- Publication date
- 05-2014
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501005 Developmental psychology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental and Educational Psychology, Social Psychology
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/a1a9d1e7-4129-4f64-82fb-4b3cdc793bcd