School-age children visually perceive bodies as adults do

What is it about?

Adults adopt refined visual-perceptual strategies when processing human faces, however less is known about the development of body-specific perceptual processes in adults and children. Our research documents that bodies just as faces are elaborated through refined, stimulus-specific processes. Importantly, these percpetual strategies are already reliable in children aged 6-7 years and do not encounter significant changes across childhood

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Photo by David Hofmann on Unsplash

Photo by David Hofmann on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study provides consistent evidence that body is a critical, social stimulus that both adults and children process through refined visual-perceptual strategies. Because the use of refined visual perceptual mechanisms specialized for the body plays an important role during social interactions, our findings could inform future clinical research on social behavior difficulties in children with neurodevelopmental disorders