ArticlePloS one2021
Developmental differences in the visual processing of emotionally ambiguous neutral faces based on perceived valence.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of sex, pubertal stage, and pubertal hormones on frontal and limbic responses to fearful and happy faces during early adolescence.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Dynamic developmental signatures of facial expression processing differ by emotion.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Enhanced neural sensitivity to brief changes of happy over angry facial expressions in preschoolers: A fast periodic visual stimulation study.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- The Development of Ambiguity Processing Is Explained by an Inverted U-Shaped Curve.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of the present research was to assess age-related differences in how children and adults interpret and visually process emotionally ambiguous neutral faces. Children and adults provided neutral child faces with valence and arousal ratings while eye movements were recorded. Consistent with previous research, children and adults both interpreted the neutral faces as negatively valenced. Both age groups showed fewer fixations to the eye region when they rated the faces as positive. However, adults fixated more on the eye region when they rated the faces as negative whereas children fixated more on the eye region when they rated the faces as neutral. This finding may suggest that children strategically allocate attentional resources to the eye region when processing emotionally ambiguous faces to gather critical affective information. These findings have implications for the utilization of neutral faces as an experimental control condition and serve as the foundation for future research on the development of mechanisms that underlie the interpretation of emotionally ambiguous faces.
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