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http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24884
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DC Field | Value | Language |
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dc.contributor.advisor | Rutherford, M. D. | - |
dc.contributor.author | Hofrichter, Ruth Maria | - |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-10-02T15:28:47Z | - |
dc.date.available | 2019-10-02T15:28:47Z | - |
dc.date.issued | 2019 | - |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24884 | - |
dc.description.abstract | Humans are social beings. They quickly detect other agents such as people or animals, preferentially attend to them (New, Cosmides, & Tooby, 2007), and process social stimuli differently than non-social objects (Reed, Stone, Bozova, & Tanaka, 2003; Yin, 1969). Three studies focused on the ability to differentiate between social and non-social stimuli and on specialized social processing. Chapter two showed that female bodies are perceptually objectified, leading the visual system to process them as objects. However, this effect can be manipulated by providing high or low sexualizing information about a target. Results indicated that body images paired with high sexualizing information are more likely to be perceptually objectified, regardless of whether they are male or female targets. Chapter three showed that infants, like adults, prioritize attention to social stimuli. We used an adapted change detection paradigm to test whether 11-month-olds would be better able to detect changes to animate or inanimate entities. Results indicated that infants are more likely to notice changes to animate entities. Chapter four reports a test of 4-year-old children’s ability to detect a chasing agent among increasing numbers of distractors. Participants were presented with moving displays of a chasing agent and its target, surrounded by up to 10 distractors. Children were asked to identify the chaser by touching it on the screen. Our results showed that 4-year-old children show a pop-out effect for chasing motion. Reaction time to identify the chaser was independent of how many distractors were added to the display. Overall, our studies suggest that, from infancy onward, humans orient towards social information and process it differently than inanimate objects. Further, the context can significantly impact how stimuli are viewed. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.title | WHEN BODIES BECOME OBJECTS AND OBJECTS COME TO LIFE: SPECIALIZED PROCESSING FOR SOCIAL STIMULI AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMACY DETECTION | en_US |
dc.title.alternative | WHEN BODIES BECOME OBJECTS AND OBJECTS COME TO LIFE | en_US |
dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
dc.contributor.department | Psychology | en_US |
dc.description.degreetype | Dissertation | en_US |
dc.description.degree | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) | en_US |
dc.description.layabstract | Humans rely on other people for social interaction and cooperation. We allocate attention and gaze to social agents, and our visual system processes social stimuli in qualitatively different ways compared to objects. Across three studies, we examined the ability to differentiate between social and non-social stimuli and specialized social processing. In the first study, we investigated in which contexts bodies are processed by the visual system as objects rather than social stimuli. The more sexualized targets are, the more likely they are to be processed as objects. Our second study showed that infants, like adults, prioritize attention toward humans or animals compared to objects. Eleven-month-olds are more adept at detecting the removal of humans or animals compared to objects from an image of a natural scene. In our final study, we tested 4-year-olds’ ability to detect chasing motion. Children can quickly pick out a chasing agent among random motion. | en_US |
Appears in Collections: | Open Access Dissertations and Theses |
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File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Hofrichter_Ruth_M_201909_PhD.pdf | 918.85 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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