The influence of familiarity on explicit eye gaze judgement in preschoolers

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.

Keywords::

• Explicit eye gaze judgement
• Preschoolers
• Familiarity

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a TransCoop grant [3.1- TCVERL-DEU/1135099] awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to S. Hoehl and T. Striano.

Notes

We are grateful to the children and parents who participated and to Maria Vera and Chanelle Spencer for recruiting and testing.