Journal article

Authors list: Linka, M; Sensoy, Ö; Karimpur, H; Schwarzer, G; de Haas, B

Publication year: 2023

Journal: Scientific Reports

Volume number: 13

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 2045-2322

Open access status: Gold

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38854-8

Publisher: Nature Research

Abstract: 
Adult gaze behaviour towards naturalistic scenes is highly biased towards semantic object classes. Little is known about the ontological development of these biases, nor about group-level differences in gaze behaviour between adults and preschoolers. Here, we let preschoolers (n=34, age 5 years) and adults (n=42, age 18-59 years) freely view 40 complex scenes containing objects with different semantic attributes to compare their fixation behaviour. Results show that preschool children allocate a significantly smaller proportion of dwell time and first fixations on Text and instead fixate Faces, Touched objects, Hands and Bodies more. A predictive model of object fixations controlling for a range of potential confounds suggests that most of these differences can be explained by drastically reduced text salience in pre-schoolers and that this effect is independent of low-level salience. These findings are in line with a developmental attentional antagonism between text and body parts (touched objects and hands in particular), which resonates with recent findings regarding 'cortical recycling'. We discuss this and other potential mechanisms driving salience differences between children and adults.

Harvard Citation style: Linka, M., Sensoy, Ö., Karimpur, H., Schwarzer, G. and de Haas, B. (2023) Free viewing biases for complex scenes in preschoolers and adults, Scientific Reports, 13(1), Article 11803. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38854-8

APA Citation style: Linka, M., Sensoy, Ö., Karimpur, H., Schwarzer, G., & de Haas, B. (2023). Free viewing biases for complex scenes in preschoolers and adults. Scientific Reports. 13(1), Article 11803. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38854-8