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Relevance is in the eye of the beholder: attentional bias to relevant stimuli in children.

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-08, 21:50 authored by Suzanne Broeren, Kathryn LesterKathryn Lester
Attentional biases are most often framed in a threat relevance framework. Alternatively, it could be that not only threat-related stimuli draw attention but also that preferential attention is drawn to all stimuli that have relevance for an individual. We investigated this stimulus relevance theory in primary school-age children by means of a visual search task. As predicted, children displayed attentional biases toward evolutionary and modern threat-related stimuli, such as spiders and guns, but also toward other relevant, positive stimuli (i.e., cakes, gifts, and happy faces). These results suggest that attentional biases are not specific to threat, but seem to apply to all relevant stimuli, both positive and negative in valence, providing first evidence for the stimulus relevance theory of preferential attention in children.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Emotion (Washington, D.C.)

ISSN

1931-1516

Publisher

American Psychological Association

Issue

2

Volume

13

Page range

262-9

Department affiliated with

  • Psychology Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-07-23

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