Lagattuta Kristin Hansen, Kramer Hannah J
Department of Psychology, and Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2017 Jan;146(1):89-101. doi: 10.1037/xge0000247.
We used eye tracking to examine 4- to 10-year-olds' and adults' (N = 173) visual attention to negative (anger, fear, sadness, disgust) and neutral faces when paired with happy faces in 2 experimental conditions: free-viewing ("look at the faces") and directed ("look only at the happy faces"). Regardless of instruction, all age groups more often looked first to negative versus positive faces (no age differences), suggesting that initial orienting is driven by bottom-up processes. In contrast, biases in more sustained attention-last looks and looking duration-varied by age and could be modified by top-down instruction. On the free-viewing task, all age groups exhibited a negativity bias which attenuated with age and remained stable across trials. When told to look only at happy faces (directed task), all age groups shifted to a positivity bias, with linear age-related improvements. This ability to implement the "look only at the happy faces" instruction, however, fatigued over time, with the decrement stronger for children. Controlling for age, individual differences in executive function (working memory and inhibitory control) had no relation to the free-viewing task; however, these variables explained substantial variance on the directed task, with children and adults higher in executive function showing better skill at looking last and looking longer at happy faces. Greater anxiety predicted more first looks to angry faces on the directed task. These findings advance theory and research on normative development and individual differences in the bias to prioritize negative information, including contributions of bottom-up salience and top-down control. (PsycINFO Database Record
我们使用眼动追踪技术，在两种实验条件下，研究了4至10岁儿童和成年人（N = 173）在与快乐面孔配对时，对负面（愤怒、恐惧、悲伤、厌恶）和中性面孔的视觉注意力：自由观看（“看这些面孔”）和定向观看（“只看快乐面孔”）。无论指令如何，所有年龄组看向负面面孔而非正面面孔的次数都更多（无年龄差异），这表明初始定向是由自下而上的过程驱动的。相比之下，在更持续的注意力方面（最后一眼和注视持续时间）的偏差因年龄而异，并且可以通过自上而下的指令进行修改。在自由观看任务中，所有年龄组都表现出负面偏差，这种偏差随着年龄的增长而减弱，并且在各次试验中保持稳定。当被告知只看快乐面孔（定向任务）时，所有年龄组都转向了正面偏差，且与年龄呈线性相关的改善。然而，执行“只看快乐面孔”指令的能力会随着时间而疲劳，儿童的下降更为明显。在控制年龄后，执行功能（工作记忆和抑制控制）的个体差异与自由观看任务无关；然而，这些变量在定向任务中解释了很大一部分方差，执行功能较高的儿童和成年人在最后一眼看向快乐面孔以及注视快乐面孔更长时间方面表现出更好的技能。焦虑程度越高，在定向任务中看向愤怒面孔的第一眼次数就越多。这些发现推动了关于负面信息优先偏向的规范发展和个体差异的理论与研究，包括自下而上的显著性和自上而下的控制所起的作用。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
