Bonobos and chimpanzees remember familiar conspecifics for decades.

Recognition and memory of familiar conspecifics provides the foundation for complex sociality and is vital to navigating an unpredictable social world [Tibbetts and Dale, Trends Ecol. Evol. 22, 529-537 (2007)]. Human social memory incorporates content about interactions and relationships and can last for decades [Sherry and Schacter, Psychol. Rev. 94, 439-454 (1987)]. Long-term social memory likely played a key role throughout human evolution, as our ancestors increasingly built relationships that operated across distant space and time [Malone et al., Int. J. Primatol. 33, 1251-1277 (2012)]. Although individual recognition is widespread among animals and sometimes lasts for years, little is known about social memory in nonhuman apes and the shared evolutionary foundations of human social memory. In a preferential-looking eye-tracking task, we presented chimpanzees and bonobos (N = 26) with side-by-side images of a previous groupmate and a conspecific stranger of the same sex. Apes' attention was biased toward former groupmates, indicating long-term memory for past social partners. The strength of biases toward former groupmates was not impacted by the duration apart, and our results suggest that recognition may persist for at least 26 y beyond separation. We also found significant but weak evidence that, like humans, apes may remember the quality or content of these past relationships: apes' looking biases were stronger for individuals with whom they had more positive histories of social interaction. Long-lasting social memory likely provided key foundations for the evolution of human culture and sociality as they extended across time, space, and group boundaries.

Identifying interindividual variability of social perception and associated brain anatomical correlations in children with autism spectrum disorder using eye-tracking and diffusion tensor imaging MRI (DTI-MRI).

Even though deficits in social cognition constitute a core characteristic of autism spectrum disorders, a large heterogeneity exists regarding individual social performances and its neural basis remains poorly investigated. Here, we used eye-tracking to objectively measure interindividual variability in social perception and its correlation with white matter microstructure, measured with diffusion tensor imaging MRI, in 25 children with autism spectrum disorder (8.5 ± 3.8 years). Beyond confirming deficits in social perception in participants with autism spectrum disorder compared 24 typically developing controls (10.5 ± 2.9 years), results revealed a large interindividual variability of such behavior among individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Whole-brain analysis showed in both autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups a positive correlation between number of fixations to the eyes and fractional anisotropy values mainly in right and left superior longitudinal tracts. In children with autism spectrum disorder a correlation was also observed in right and left inferior longitudinal tracts. Importantly, a significant interaction between group and number of fixations to the eyes was observed within the anterior portion of the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus, mainly in the right anterior temporal region. This additional correlation in a supplementary region suggests the existence of a compensatory brain mechanism, which may support enhanced performance in social perception among children with autism spectrum disorder.

Eye Movements Decrease during Effortful Speech Listening.

Hearing impairment affects many older adults but is often diagnosed decades after speech comprehension in noisy situations has become effortful. Accurate assessment of listening effort may thus help diagnose hearing impairment earlier. However, pupillometry-the most used approach to assess listening effort-has limitations that hinder its use in practice. The current study explores a novel way to assess listening effort through eye movements. Building on cognitive and neurophysiological work, we examine the hypothesis that eye movements decrease when speech listening becomes challenging. In three experiments with human participants from both sexes, we demonstrate, consistent with this hypothesis, that fixation duration increases and spatial gaze dispersion decreases with increasing speech masking. Eye movements decreased during effortful speech listening for different visual scenes (free viewing, object tracking) and speech materials (simple sentences, naturalistic stories). In contrast, pupillometry was less sensitive to speech masking during story listening, suggesting pupillometric measures may not be as effective for the assessments of listening effort in naturalistic speech-listening paradigms. Our results reveal a critical link between eye movements and cognitive load, suggesting that neural activity in the brain regions that support the regulation of eye movements, such as frontal eye field and superior colliculus, are modulated when listening is effortful.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Assessment of listening effort is critical for early diagnosis of age-related hearing loss. Pupillometry is most used but has several disadvantages. The current study explores a novel way to assess listening effort through eye movements. We examine the hypothesis that eye movements decrease when speech listening becomes effortful. We demonstrate, consistent with this hypothesis, that fixation duration increases and gaze dispersion decreases with increasing speech masking. Eye movements decreased during effortful speech listening for different visual scenes (free viewing, object tracking) and speech materials (sentences, naturalistic stories). Our results reveal a critical link between eye movements and cognitive load, suggesting that neural activity in brain regions that support the regulation of eye movements are modulated when listening is effortful.

The date/delay effect in intertemporal choice: A combined fMRI and eye-tracking study.

Temporal discounting, the tendency to devalue future rewards as a function of delay until receipt, is influenced by time framing. Specifically, discount rates are shallower when the time at which the reward is received is presented as a date (date condition; e.g., June 8, 2023) rather than in delay units (delay condition; e.g., 30 days), which is commonly referred to as the date/delay effect. However, the cognitive and neural mechanisms of this effect are not well understood. Here, we examined the date/delay effect by analysing combined fMRI and eye-tracking data of N = 31 participants completing a temporal discounting task in both a delay and a date condition. The results confirmed the date/delay effect and revealed that the date condition led to higher fixation durations on time attributes and to higher activity in precuneus/PCC and angular gyrus, that is, areas previously associated with episodic thinking. Additionally, participants made more comparative eye movements in the date compared to the delay condition. A lower date/delay effect was associated with higher prefrontal activity in the date > delay contrast, suggesting that higher control or arithmetic operations may reduce the date/delay effect. Our findings are in line with hypotheses positing that the date condition is associated with differential time estimation and the use of more comparative as opposed to integrative choice strategies. Specifically, higher activity in memory-related brain areas suggests that the date condition leads to higher perceived proximity of delayed rewards, while higher frontal activity (middle/superior frontal gyrus, posterior medial frontal cortex, cingulate) in participants with a lower date/delay effect suggests that the effect is particularly pronounced in participants avoiding complex arithmetic operations in the date condition.

Selective and prolonged attention to emotional scenes in humans and bonobos.

Perceiving emotions in others is at the foundation of higher-order social cognition. The importance of emotions is evidenced by the fact that they receive prioritized attention at early stages of processing the environment in humans and some other primates. Nevertheless, we do not fully understand how emotion modulates attention over longer durations in primates, particularly in great apes. Bonobos, one of our closest relatives, stand out in emotion processing and regulation among great apes. This makes them an interesting comparison species and a valuable model for studying the evolution of emotion perception in hominids. We investigated how bonobos and humans spontaneously attend to emotionally valent scenes in a preferential looking task using eye-tracking. With Bayesian mixed modelling, we found that bonobos and humans generally looked longer at emotional scenes, mainly of conspecifics. Moreover, while bonobos did not have a bias toward emotional human scenes, humans sustained their attention toward bonobos playing, grooming and having sex. Furthermore, when exploring an immediate bias for emotions, humans showed a bias toward affiliative human scenes, and bonobos showed a bias away from bonobos-in-distress scenes. These findings suggest that emotions modulate attention at early and later attentional stages in bonobos, similar to humans.

Recognition memory deficits detected through eye-tracking in well-controlled children with self-limited epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes.

OBJECTIVE: Children with self-limited epilepsy characterized by centrotemporal spikes (SeLECTS) exhibit cognitive deficits in memory during the active phase, but there is currently a lack of studies and techniques to assess their memory development after well-controlled seizures. In this study, we employed eye-tracking techniques to investigate visual memory and its association with clinical factors and global intellectual ability, aiming to identify potential risk factors by examining encoding and recognition processes. METHODS: A total of 26 recruited patients diagnosed with SeLECTS who had been seizure-free for at least 2 years, along with 24 control subjects, underwent Wechsler cognitive assessment and an eye-movement-based memory task while video-electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded. Fixation and pupil data related to eye movements were utilized to detect distinct memory processes and subsequently to compare the cognitive performance of patients exhibiting different regression patterns on EEG. RESULTS: The findings revealed persistent impairments in visual memory among children with SeLECTS after being well controlled, primarily observed in the recognition stage rather than the encoding phase. Furthermore, the age at onset, frequency of seizures, and interictal epileptiform discharges exhibited significant correlations with eye movement data. SIGNIFICANCE: Children with SeLECTS exhibit persistent recognition memory impairment after being well controlled for the disease. Controlling the frequency of seizures and reducing prolonged epileptiform activity may improve memory cognitive development. The application of the eye-tracking technique may provide novel insights into exploring memory cognition as well as underlying mechanisms associated with pediatric epilepsy.

Do dogs preferentially encode the identity of the target object or the location of others' actions?

The ability to make sense of and predict others' actions is foundational for many socio-cognitive abilities. Dogs (Canis familiaris) constitute interesting comparative models for the study of action perception due to their marked sensitivity to human actions. We tested companion dogs (N = 21) in two screen-based eye-tracking experiments, adopting a task previously used with human infants and apes, to assess which aspects of an agent's action dogs consider relevant to the agent's underlying intentions. An agent was shown repeatedly acting upon the same one of two objects, positioned in the same location. We then presented the objects in swapped locations and the agent approached the objects centrally (Experiment 1) or the old object in the new location or the new object in the old location (Experiment 2). Dogs' anticipatory fixations and looking times did not reflect an expectation that agents should have continued approaching the same object nor the same location as witnessed during the brief familiarization phase; this contrasts with some findings with infants and apes, but aligns with findings in younger infants before they have sufficient motor experience with the observed action. However, dogs' pupil dilation and latency to make an anticipatory fixation suggested that, if anything, dogs expected the agents to keep approaching the same location rather than the same object, and their looking times showed sensitivity to the animacy of the agents. We conclude that dogs, lacking motor experience with the observed actions of grasping or kicking performed by a human or inanimate agent, might interpret such actions as directed toward a specific location rather than a specific object. Future research will need to further probe the suitability of anticipatory looking as measure of dogs' socio-cognitive abilities given differences between the visual systems of dogs and primates.

Using Eye tracking to Examine Young Adults' Visual Attention to E-cigarette Advertising Features and Associated Positive E-cigarette Perceptions.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the influence of e-cigarette marketing features on the antecedents of e-cigarette use. PURPOSE: Using an eye-tracking experiment, we examined visual attention to common features in e-cigarette ads and its associations with positive e-cigarette perceptions among young adults. METHODS: Young adults (ages 18-29) who smoke cigarettes (n = 40) or do not use tobacco (n = 71) viewed 30 e-cigarette ads on a computer screen. Eye-tracking technology measured dwell time (fixation duration) and entry time (time to first fixation) for 14 pre-defined ad features. Participants then completed a survey about perceptions of e-cigarettes shown in the ads. We used regression models to examine the associations between ad features and standardized attention metrics among all participants and by tobacco-use status and person-aggregated standardized attention for each ad feature and positive e-cigarette perceptions. RESULTS: Dwell time was the longest for smoker-targeted claims, positive experience claims, and price promotions. Entry time was the shortest for multiple flavor descriptions, nicotine warnings, and people. Those who do not use tobacco had a longer dwell time for minor sales restrictions and longer entry time for purchasing information than those who smoke. Longer dwell time for multiple flavor descriptions was associated with e-cigarette appeal. A shorter entry time for fruit flavor description was associated with positive e-cigarette-use expectancies. CONCLUSIONS: Young adults allocated attention differently to various e-cigarette ad features, and such viewing patterns were largely similar by tobacco-use statuses. Multiple or fruit flavors may be the features that contribute to the positive influence of e-cigarette marketing among young adults.

E-cigarette marketing exposure is associated with e-cigarette use among young adults. However, little is known about the influence of e-cigarette marketing features among this population. This study used eye-tracking technology to objectively measure dwell time and entry time for 14 pre-defined e-cigarette ad features. Young adults (ages 18­29) who smoke cigarettes (n = 40) or do not use tobacco (n = 71) viewed 30 e-cigarette ads on a computer screen and completed an online survey about positive e-cigarette perceptions. The study found that dwell time was the longest for smoker-targeted claims, positive experience claims, and price promotions. Entry time was the shortest for multiple flavor descriptions, nicotine warnings, and people. Those who do not use tobacco had a longer dwell time for minor sales restrictions and longer entry time for purchasing information than those who smoke. Longer dwell time for multiple flavor descriptions was associated with e-cigarette appeal. A shorter entry time for fruit flavor description was associated with positive e-cigarette-use expectancies. The results suggest that young adults allocated attention differently to various e-cigarette ad features, and such viewing patterns were largely similar by tobacco-use statuses. Multiple or fruit flavors may be the features that contribute to the positive influence of e-cigarette marketing among young adults.

How body postures affect gaze control in scene viewing under specific task conditions.

Gaze movements during visual exploration of natural scenes are typically investigated with the static picture viewing paradigm in the laboratory. While this paradigm is attractive for its highly controlled conditions, limitations in the generalizability of the resulting findings to more natural viewing behavior have been raised frequently. Here, we address the combined influences of body posture and viewing task on gaze behavior with the static picture viewing paradigm under free viewing as a baseline condition. We recorded gaze data using mobile eye tracking during postural manipulations in scene viewing. Specifically, in Experiment 1, we compared gaze behavior during head-supported sitting and quiet standing under two task conditions. We found that task affects temporal and spatial gaze parameters, while posture produces no effects on temporal and small effects on spatial parameters. In Experiment 2, we further investigated body posture by introducing four conditions (sitting with chin rest, head-free sitting, quiet standing, standing on an unstable platform). Again, we found no effects on temporal and small effects on spatial gaze parameters. In our experiments, gaze behavior is largely unaffected by body posture, while task conditions readily produce effects. We conclude that results from static picture viewing may allow predictions of gaze statistics under more natural viewing conditions, however, viewing tasks should be chosen carefully because of their potential effects on gaze characteristics.

Social threat processing in adults and children: Faster orienting to, but shorter dwell time on, angry faces during visual search.

Attention to emotional signals conveyed by others is critical for gleaning information about potential social partners and the larger social context. Children appear to detect social threats (e.g., angry faces) faster than non-threatening social signals (e.g., neutral faces). However, methods that rely on behavioral responses alone are limited in identifying different attentional processes involved in threat detection or responding. To address this question, we used a visual search paradigm to assess behavioral (i.e., reaction time to select a target image) and attentional (i.e., eye-tracking fixations, saccadic shifts, and dwell time) responses in children (ages 7-10 years old, N = 42) and adults (ages 18-23 years old, N = 46). In doing so, we compared behavioral responding and attentional detection and engagement with threatening (i.e., angry and fearful faces) and non-threatening (i.e., happy faces) social signals. Overall, children and adults were faster to detect social threats (i.e., angry faces), but spent a smaller proportion of time dwelling on them and had slower behavioral responses. Findings underscore the importance of combining different measures to parse differences between processing versus responding to social signals across development. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Children and adults are slower to select angry faces when measured by time to mouse-click but faster to detect angry faces when measured by time to first eye fixation. The use of eye-tracking addresses some limitations of prior visual search tasks with children that rely on behavioral responses alone. Results suggest shorter time to first fixation, but subsequently, shorter duration of dwell on social threat in children and adults.

Young adults' attention to reduced exposure claims in IQOS advertising and associations with product perceptions and use intentions.

INTRODUCTION: Non-combusted tobacco products, particularly those authorized as modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs), may appeal to young adults. This cross-sectional study explored young adults' attention to reduced exposure claims in IQOS advertising and its associations with product perceptions and use intentions. METHODS: Fifty-one young adults aged 21-29 (mean age = 24.5 years old, 54.9% who smoked cigarettes, 47.1% male, 66.7% White) viewed an IQOS advertisement containing two reduced exposure claims (one large, one detailed) for 20 seconds during eye-tracking, then completed post-exposure questionnaires (risk beliefs, harm perceptions, attitudes, use intentions). We compared attention and questionnaire measures by smoking status and examined associations between attention to reduced exposure claims and questionnaire measures. RESULTS: Overall, the large (vs. detailed) reduced exposure claim attracted young adults' attention more quickly, but the detailed claim held attention longer than all other advertisement features (p's < .001). There were no differences by smoking status in how quickly either claim attracted or held initial attention, but young adults who smoked (vs. did not smoke) spent more cumulative time looking at the large claim and less time looking at the detailed claim (p's < .05). Among those who smoked, greater dwell time on the detailed reduced exposure claim was associated with more beliefs about reduced harm, lower perceived risk of addiction, and greater intentions to try IQOS (p's <.05). CONCLUSIONS: Detailed information on reduced exposure in IQOS advertising may convey reduced risk and potentially promote uptake of IQOS among young adults who smoke and attend to this content. IMPLICATIONS: Findings from this exploratory, single-exposure study demonstrate differences in young adults' attention to reduced exposure claims in an IQOS advertisement based on their smoking status. Among those who smoke, greater attention to detailed reduced exposure information was associated with reduced perceptions of harm compared to cigarettes, and greater intentions to try IQOS. Findings suggest that among young adults who smoke cigarettes and visually engage with this content, detailed text containing IQOS' authorized reduced exposure claims is interpreted as reduced risk information and may promote uptake of this product.

Features of attention network impairment in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy: Evidence from eye-tracking and electroencephalogram.

AIM: To explore multiple features of attention impairments in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). METHODS: A total of 93 patients diagnosed with TLE at Xiangya Hospital during May 2022 and December 2022 and 85 healthy controls were included in this study. Participants were asked to complete neuropsychological scales and attention network test (ANT) with recording of eye-tracking and electroencephalogram. RESULTS: All means of evaluation showed impaired attention functions in TLE patients. ANT results showed impaired orienting (p < 0.001) and executive control (p = 0.041) networks. Longer mean first saccade time (p = 0.046) and more total saccadic counts (p = 0.035) were found in eye-tracking results, indicating abnormal alerting and orienting networks. Both alerting, orienting and executive control networks were abnormal, manifesting as decreased amplitudes (N1 & P3, p < 0.001) and extended latency (P3, p = 0.002). The energy of theta, alpha and beta were all sensitive to the changes of alerting and executive control network with time, but only beta power was sensitive to the changes of orienting network. CONCLUSION: Our findings are helpful for early identification of patients with TLE combined with attention impairments, which have strong clinical guiding significance for long-term monitoring and intervention.

Free-viewing gaze patterns reveal a mood-congruency bias in MDD during an affective fMRI/eye-tracking task.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) has been related to abnormal amygdala activity during emotional face processing. However, a recent large-scale study (n = 28,638) found no such correlation, which is probably due to the low precision of fMRI measurements. To address this issue, we used simultaneous fMRI and eye-tracking measurements during a commonly employed emotional face recognition task. Eye-tracking provide high-precision data, which can be used to enrich and potentially stabilize fMRI readouts. With the behavioral response, we additionally divided the active task period into a task-related and a free-viewing phase to explore the gaze patterns of MDD patients and healthy controls (HC) and compare their respective neural correlates. Our analysis showed that a mood-congruency attentional bias could be detected in MDD compared to healthy controls during the free-viewing phase but without parallel amygdala disruption. Moreover, the neural correlates of gaze patterns reflected more prefrontal fMRI activity in the free-viewing than the task-related phase. Taken together, spontaneous emotional processing in free viewing might lead to a more pronounced mood-congruency bias in MDD, which indicates that combined fMRI with eye-tracking measurement could be beneficial for our understanding of the underlying psychopathology of MDD in different emotional processing phases.Trial Registration: The BeCOME study is registered on ClinicalTrials (gov: NCT03984084) by the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany.

Visual Attention to Evolutionarily Relevant Information by Heterosexual Men and Women While Viewing Mock Online Dating Profiles.

The way people create social connections and access information has been altered greatly by technology in recent decades. Online browsing of visual profiles has become a common means for seeking potential partners for both short- and long-term relationships. Little is known, however, about how people prioritize mate quality information while viewing online profiles. Using eye-tracking methods and self-report, this study investigated how people evaluated profile-based facial attractiveness and text-based financial resources information, represented by income and occupation. Heterosexual male and female participants, aged between 18 and 27 years, viewed opposite-sex profiles while their eye-movements were recorded using a remote eye-tracking camera. In line with current theory, resources information had little effect on men's overall attention to women's faces, whereas women's overall attention to men's faces varied depending on the level of income and occupation. Women evaluated men's faces more when income and occupation were low, regardless of attractiveness. Unexpectedly, however, men marginally increased their attention toward unattractive women who showed a high-level of income and more esteemed occupation. Men self-reported a higher interest in women for a short-term relationship and women self-reported a higher interest in men for a long-term relationship. This work provides a foundation to further examine how people browse profile-based information and to investigate the mate selection process, with real-world implications for online dating app users, profile design, and content.

Sharing and Receiving Eye-Contact Predicts Mate Choice After a 5-Minute Conversation: Evidence from a Speed-Dating Study.

In popular narratives, the first date with a potential mate often centers on their gaze as embodiment of interest and attraction. However, evidence is still lacking on the role of eye-contact as a potent signal in human social interaction in the context of dating. In addition, behavioral mechanisms of mate selection are not well understood. In the present study, we therefore examined mutual eye-contact and its influence on mate choice by applying dual mobile eye-tracking during naturalistic speed-dates. A total of 30 male and 30 female subjects attended four speed-dates each (N = 240). Subjects were more likely to choose those dating partners with whom they shared more eye-contact with. In addition, perceived attractiveness played an important role for mate choice. Interestingly, receiving but not giving eye-contact also predicted individual mate choice. Eye-contact thus acts as an important signal of romantic attraction when encountering a dating partner.

Depressive symptoms and visual attention to others' eyes in healthy individuals.

BACKGROUND: Eye contact is a fundamental part of social interaction. In clinical studies, it has been observed that patients suffering from depression make less eye contact during interviews than healthy individuals, which could be a factor contributing to their social functioning impairments. Similarly, results from mood induction studies with healthy persons indicate that attention to the eyes diminishes as a function of sad mood. The present screen-based eye-tracking study examined whether depressive symptoms in healthy individuals are associated with reduced visual attention to other persons' direct gaze during free viewing. METHODS: Gaze behavior of 44 individuals with depressive symptoms and 49 individuals with no depressive symptoms was analyzed in a free viewing task. Grouping was based on the Beck Depression Inventory using the cut-off proposed by Hautzinger et al. (2006). Participants saw pairs of faces with direct gaze showing emotional or neutral expressions. One-half of the face pairs was shown without face masks, whereas the other half was presented with face masks. Participants' dwell times and first fixation durations were analyzed. RESULTS: In case of unmasked facial expressions, participants with depressive symptoms looked shorter at the eyes compared to individuals without symptoms across all expression conditions. No group difference in first fixation duration on the eyes of masked and unmasked faces was observed. Individuals with depressive symptoms dwelled longer on the mouth region of unmasked faces. For masked faces, no significant group differences in dwell time on the eyes were found. Moreover, when specifically examining dwell time on the eyes of faces with an emotional expression there were also no significant differences between groups. Overall, participants gazed significantly longer at the eyes in masked compared to unmasked faces. CONCLUSIONS: For faces without mask, our results suggest that depressiveness in healthy individuals goes along with less visual attention to other persons' eyes but not with less visual attention to others' faces. When factors come into play that generally amplify the attention directed to the eyes such as face masks or emotions then no relationship between depressiveness and visual attention to the eyes can be established.

Clinical reasoning in pharmacy: What do eye movements and verbal protocols tell us about the processing of a case task?

This study investigates pharmacy students' reasoning while solving a case task concerning an acute patient counselling situation in a pharmacy. Participants' (N = 34) reasoning processes were investigated with written tasks utilizing eye-tracking in combination with verbal protocols. The case was presented in three pages, each page being followed by written questions. Eye movements were recorded during case processing. Success in the task required differentiating the relevant information from the task redundant information, and initial activation of several scripts and verification of the most likely one, when additional information became available. 2nd (n = 16) and 3rd (n = 18)-year students' and better and worse succeeding students' processes were compared. The results showed that only a few 2nd-year students solved the case correctly, whereas almost all of the 3rd-year students were successful. Generally, the average total processing times of the case material did not differ between the groups. However, better-succeeding and 3rd-year students processed the very first task-relevant sentences longer, indicating that they were able to focus on relevant information. Differences in the written answers to the 2nd and 3rd question were significant, whereas differences regarding the first question were not. Thus, eye-tracking seems to be able to capture illness script activation during case processing, but other methods are needed to depict the script verification process. Based on the results, pedagogical suggestions for advancing pharmacy education are discussed.

Infants' top-down perceptual modulation is specific to own-race faces.

Recent studies have revealed the influence of higher-level cognitive systems in modulating perceptual processing (top-down perceptual modulation) in infancy. However, more research is needed to understand how top-down processes in infant perception contribute to early perceptual development. To this end, this study examined infants' top-down perception of own- and other-race faces to reveal whether top-down modulation is linked to the emergence of perceptual specialization. Infants first learned an association between a sound and faces, with the race of the faces manipulated between groups (own race vs. other race). We then tested infants' face perception across various levels of perceptual difficulty (manipulated by presentation duration) and indexed top-down perception by the change in perception when infants heard the sound previously associated with the face (predictive sound) versus an irrelevant sound. Infants exhibited top-down face perception for own-race faces (Experiment 1). However, we present new evidence that infants did not show evidence of top-down modulation for other-race faces (Experiment 2), suggesting an experience-based specificity of this capacity with more effective top-down modulation in familiar perceptual contexts. In addition, we ruled out the possibility that this face race effect was due to differences in infants' associative learning of the sound and faces between the two groups. This work has important implications for understanding the mechanisms supporting perceptual development and how they relate to top-down perception in infancy.

Dissociated contributions of working memory and inhibitory control to children's and adults' analogical reasoning: Analogical strategies matter.

This study investigated whether and how each component of working memory (WM) and inhibitory control (IC) is related to analogical reasoning. Specifically, the mediating roles of analogical strategies were examined and compared across children and adults. In total, 79 children (50 girls; M ± SD = 8.43 ± 0.59 years old) and 77 adults (35 female; 19.44 ± 0.82 years old) were administered tests of WM, IC, and analogical reasoning. In addition, participants' eye movement data during the analogical reasoning task were collected to classify the analogical strategies. The results showed that the semantic-constraint strategy completely mediated the relationship between WM (rather than IC) and analogical reasoning for children. However, for adults, the project-first strategy partially mediated the association between IC (rather than WM) and analogical reasoning. These findings reveal the dissociated roles of WM and IC in analogical reasoning through analogical strategies for children and adults and highlight the importance of analogical strategies.

Attention-language interface in Multilingual Assessment instrument for Narratives.

The current study employed the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) to test comprehension of narrative macrostructure in Russian in a visual world eye-tracking paradigm. The four MAIN visual narratives are structurally similar and question referents' goals and internal states (IS). Previous research revealed that children's MAIN comprehension differed among the four narratives in German, Swedish, Russian, and Turkish, but it is not clear why. We tested whether the difference in comprehension was (a) present, (b) caused by complicated inferences in understanding IS compared with goals, and (c) ameliorated by orienting visual attention to the referents whose IS was critical for accurate comprehension. Our findings confirmed (a) and (b) but found no effect of attentional cues on accuracy for (c). The multidimensional theory of narrative organization of children's knowledge of macrostructure needs to consider the type of inferences necessary for IS that are influenced by subjective interpretation and reasoning.