Increased visual interest and affective responses to impossible figures in early infancy

Publication date: November 2019Source: Infant Behavior and Development, Volume 57Author(s): Christina Krause, Danielle Longo, Sarah ShuwairiAbstractThis research evaluated infants’ facial expressions as they viewed pictures of possible and impossible objects on a TV screen. Previous studies in our lab demonstrated that four-month-old infants looked longer at the impossible figures and fixated to a greater extent within the problematic region of the impossible shape, suggesting they were sensitive to novel or unusual object geometry. Our work takes studies of looking time data a step further, determining if increased looking co-occurs with facial expressions associated with increased visual interest and curiosity, or even puzzlement and surprise. We predicted that infants would display more facial expressions consistent with either “interest” or “surprise” when viewing the impossible objects relative to possible ones, which would provide further evidence of increased perceptual processing due to incompatible spatial information. Our results showed that the impossible cubes evoked both longer looking times and more reactive expressions in the majority of infants. Specifically, the data revealed significantly greater frequency of raised eyebrows, widened eyes and returns to looking when viewing impossible figures with the most robust effects occurring after a period of habituation. The pattern of facial expressions were consistent with the “interest” family of faci...

Source: Infant Behavior and Development - August 3, 2019 Category: Child Development Source Type: research