Attention to Faces
How children attend to faces shapes their understanding of emotions, intentions, and social communication. We study how these processes contribute to social learning and infant-caregiver relationships.
How children attend to faces shapes their understanding of emotions, intentions, and social communication. We study how these processes contribute to social learning and infant-caregiver relationships.
Why Children Pay Attention to Faces
Ages: 3-6 years old
In this study, children view pictures and short scenes showing people and objects on a screen. We measure where children look using a safe eye-tracking camera. We are interested in whether children naturally pay more attention to faces — especially socially meaningful ones — and how this helps them understand and learn about other people. This research helps us understand how social attention develops in early childhood.
Do children show race-based attention biases when viewing faces?
Ages: 6-10 years old
In this study, children played a simple computer game while pictures of people briefly appeared on the screen. We measured whether these faces naturally pulled children’s attention away from the game. This allows us to understand how children notice and respond to differences between people as their social understanding develops.
How Familiar Faces Capture Children's Attention
Ages: 6-10 years old
In this study, children played a computer search game where they looked for a specific picture as quickly as possible. Sometimes, faces appeared on the screen during the game. We found that children were more distracted when their caregiver’s face appeared than when a stranger’s face appeared. This shows that familiar, meaningful people naturally capture children’s attention — even when they are trying to focus on something else. This research helps us understand how relationships shape attention and learning during childhood.
