From social input to social attention: Parental mood predictability is related to the development of gaze cueing

Le résumé fourni par la source

Gaze following is a fundamental developmental milestone for social cognition. Adults’ attention is reliably cued by gaze shifts but less is known about how gaze cuing emerges in early childhood or what shapes its developmental trajectory. Reduced sensitivity to social input—such as gazes—and differences in the early social environment can affect the development of gaze cueing but the role of these factors remains untested. We explored the developmental trajectory of the gaze cueing effect (GCE) and the factors shaping it in a large longitudinal sample from the YOUth cohort (N=1928; 5 months, 10 months, 3 years, 6 years). Using static facial stimuli, we found no conclusive evidence of gaze cueing in the first year of life. By 3 years, an early form of the GCE was detectable, with children making more errors on gaze-incongruent trials. By 6 years, the effect was robustly established, yet remained sensitive to characteristics of children’s early social environment. Contrary to our expectations, reduced social sensitivity indexed by higher callous-unemotional traits did not attenuate the GCE at any age; instead, at 3 years, it was associated with faster overall target detection. Parental mood unpredictability, indexing exposure to an inconsistent social environment, was associated with attenuated gaze cueing at 6 years. In contrast, greater parental mood negativity was associated with slower disengagement from gaze-incongruent targets. Together, these findings map the developmental trajectory of gaze cueing across early childhood and highlight the role of the parental characteristics as a key factor in shaping early social-cognitive development.

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