TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2011//
TI  - Facing threat: Infants' and adults' visual scanning of faces with neutral, happy, sad, angry, and fearful emotional expressions
JO  - Cognition and emotion
A1  - Hunnius, Sabine
A1  - de Wit, Tessa C. J.
A1  - Vrins, Sven
A1  - von Hofsten, Claes
SP  - 193
EP  - 205
VL  - 25
IS  - 2
N2  - Human faces are among the most important visual stimuli that we encounter at all ages. This importance partly stems from the face as a conveyer of information on the emotional state of other individuals. Previous research has demonstrated specific scanning patterns in response to threat-related compared to non-threat-related emotional expressions. This study investigated how visual scanning patterns toward faces which display different emotional expressions develop during infancy. The visual scanning patterns of 4-month-old and 7-month-old infants and adults when looking at threat-related (i.e., angry and fearful) versus non-threat-related (i.e., happy, sad, and neutral) emotional faces were examined. We found that infants as well as adults displayed an avoidant looking pattern in response to threat-related emotional expressions with reduced dwell times and relatively less fixations to the inner features of the face. In addition, adults showed a pattern of eye contact avoidance when looking at threat-related emotional expressions that was not yet present in infants. Thus, whereas a general avoidant reaction to threat-related facial expressions appears to be present from very early in life, the avoidance of eye contact might be a learned response toward others' anger and fear that emerges later during development.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0269-9931
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15298861003771189
ID  - ref1
ER  -