Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, Niigata University, 2-8050 Ikarashi Nishi-Ku, Niigata, 950-2181, Japan.
Department of Psychology, College of Contemporary Psychology, Rikkyo University, 1-2-26 Kitano Niiza-shi, Saitama, 352-8558, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2022 Jul 7;12(1):11566. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-15730-5.
A large field visual motion pattern (optic flow) with a radial pattern provides a compelling perception of self-motion; a radially expanding/contracting optic flow generates the perception of forward/backward locomotion. Moreover, the focus of a radial optic flow, particularly an expansive flow, is an important visual cue to perceive and control the heading direction during human locomotion. Previous research has shown that human gaze patterns have an "expansion bias": a tendency to be more attracted to the focus of expansive flow than to the focus of contractive flow. We investigated the development of the expansion bias in children (N = 240, 1-12 years) and adults (N = 20). Most children aged ≥ 5 years and adults showed a significant tendency to shift their gaze to the focus of an expansive flow, whereas the youngest group (1-year-old children) showed a significant but opposing tendency; their gaze was more attracted to the focus of contractive flow than to the focus of expansive flow. The relationship between the developmental change from the "contraction bias" in early toddlerhood to the expansion bias in the later developmental stages and possible factors (e.g., global visual motion processing abilities and locomotor experiences) are discussed.
大视野视觉运动模式（光流）具有放射状模式，提供了强烈的自我运动感知；放射状扩张/收缩的光流产生前进/后退运动的感知。此外，放射状光流的焦点，特别是扩张的光流，是感知和控制人类运动中行进方向的重要视觉线索。先前的研究表明，人类的注视模式存在“扩张偏向”：即倾向于被扩张流的焦点吸引，而不是收缩流的焦点吸引。我们研究了儿童（N = 240，1-12 岁）和成人（N = 20）中扩张偏向的发展。大多数年龄≥5 岁的儿童和成人都表现出明显的倾向，将目光转向扩张流的焦点，而年龄最小的组（1 岁儿童）则表现出明显但相反的倾向；他们的目光更被收缩流的焦点吸引，而不是扩张流的焦点吸引。讨论了从早期幼儿期的“收缩偏向”到后期发展阶段的扩张偏向的发展变化与可能的因素（例如，全局视觉运动处理能力和运动经验）之间的关系。
