Work

Re-examining our evolutionary propensities toward snakes: Insights from children's inattentional blindness

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the divergent viewpoints regarding fearful stimuli in young children by analyzing variations in eye movement tracking and detection rates when confronted with the sudden appearance of either snakes or lizards. A total of 137 five to six-year-old Chinese children (43.8% male) participated in the study, which utilized the inattentional blindness paradigm. The results indicated that young children did not display any attentional bias toward snakes when compared with lizards, as evidenced by their detection rates and eye movement tracking. Interestingly, the children fixated on lizards earlier than snakes. These findings suggest that the notion of an evolution bias toward ancestral threats may not be as credible as previously believed.

Source: Perception

DOI: 10.1177/03010066241297360

Authors: Hui Zhang, Feng Liang, Fen Wang, Na Feng, Congcong Yan, Cathrine N. Hewett, Hui Chen

Institutions: Zhejiang Normal University, University of Wollongong, Zhejiang University

Language: English

Topic: Visual Attention and Saliency Detection

Subfield: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funder: China Scholarship Council

OpenAlex ID: W4404548010

FWCI: 0.283

Cites: 44

Cited by: 2

Related to: 10