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Information detection across the developing visual field: Symposium 8. From vision to attention: the development of visual perception in early childhood

par Capparini, Chiara ;To, Michelle P.S.;Reid, Vincent M.
Référence The 44th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP) 2022(Nijmegen, The Netherlands), Perception, Perception, Vol. 51, page (1-207)
Publication Publié, 2022-08-01

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Résumé :

Over the last decades, it has been common to study infant visual information processing in simplified settings, presenting images within limited visual areas on standard computer displays. This is a simplification of a richer visual environment in which information derives from a wide visual field including more peripheral locations. Evidence shows that infants’ peripheral vision is developing during the first postnatal year (e.g., Dobson, Brown, Harvey, & Narter, 1998; Maurer & Lewis, 1991). Nevertheless, most studies have relied on the presentation of flashing LED lights and, to date, little is known about social and non-social information detection beyond near-peripheral locations. Here we explored infants’ sensitivities to different visual information across a wide field of view of 120°. Using a detection task, we aimed to measure the extent of the peripheral field in response to Gabor patches (Experiment 1) and face-like stimuli (Experiment 2) in 9-month-old infants. Face-like stimuli were produced by spatially filtering intact faces, whilst controlling for luminance, colour and contrast to match with the Gabor patches. Results revealed unequal detection performances across eccentricities, with successful detection rates up to 50° in response to non-social targets. Notably, performances were increased with face-like stimuli and detection rates dropped beyond 55°, with a marginal advantage for targets appearing in the left hemifield and no effect of stimulus orientation. These findings are key to understanding how social and non-social visual information is detected outside foveal processed space and are informative for the design of future infant studies across the visual field.