The Baby Schema's Influence on Motor Dexterity

Transcription

1 The Huron University College Journal of Learning and Motivation Volume 51 Issue 1 Article The Baby Schema's Influence on Motor Dexterity Alyssa Kuiack Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Kuiack, Alyssa (2013) "The Baby Schema's Influence on Motor Dexterity," The Huron University College Journal of Learning and Motivation: Vol. 51 : Iss. 1, Article 9. Available at: This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Psychology at Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Huron University College Journal of Learning and Motivation by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact tadam@uwo.ca, wlswadmin@uwo.ca.

2 Running Head: The Baby Schema's Influence on Motor Dexterity Alyssa Kuiack Huron University College Using 20 males (mean age of years) and 20 females (mean age of years), participants were tested in a variation on the studies done by Sherman et al. in 2009 and Nittono et al. in Both experiments found that participants were more careful on a motor dexterity task immediately following exposure to images of baby animals in comparison to adult animals. This result was thought to have occurred due to the evolutionary importance of offspring survival and the resulting carefulness and responsiveness after being exposed to a set of infantile characteristics that Lorenz named "the baby schema". The purpose of the current study was to replicate the findings of Sherman et al. and Nittono et al. using images of human infant and adult faces. In this experiment, participants played the children's game of "Operation" to measure their motor dexterity. They were then exposed to 10 images of either infant or adult faces and asked to rate each face on a 7-point scale for "cuteness". Participants then played the motor dexterity game again and scores were compared. A 2x2 analysis of variants revealed no main effect of sex on game performance (F(l,36)=0.05,/i>0.05 and F(l,36)=0.63,/?>0.05), no main effect of viewing images of adults versus infants (F(l,36)=0.15,;7>0.05 and F(l,36)=1.81,j9>0.05) and no interaction (F(l,36)=0.03, p>0.05 andf(l,36)=0.16,/7>0.05). In 1943 Lorenz coined the term Kindchenshema, more commonly referred to as the baby schema, to reference a set of physical characteristics typical of an infant (a large head in proportion to the rest of the body, a round face, high forehead, large eyes etc.). He stated that, because of the evolutionary importance of offspring survival, humans exposed to this set of infantile characteristics become more responsive and act more carefully in subsequent behaviour. Glocker et al. (2009) hypothesized that the baby schema would be perceived as cute and would elicit careful behaviour in adults. They tested this hypothesis with 122 undergraduate students of Drexel University, PA (36

3 female, 26 male participants in the "cuteness task" and 25 female, 19 male participants in the "caretaking task"). During the cuteness task, participants were shown 17 unmanipulated infant faces along with the same 17 pictures manipulated to show extreme baby schema characteristics and again manipulated to show characteristics opposite to the baby schema (in the last set of 17 images). They were then asked to rate, on a 5-point scale, how cute or non-cute they viewed the pictures to be. In the caretaking task, participants were presented with the same three sets of 17 pictures but were asked to rate, on a 5-point scale, how motivated they felt to take care of the infant. Participants were made aware of the fact that they would be viewing the same pictures in different ways and all 51 pictures were presented in a random order. Their results indicated that babies manipulated to show more obvious baby schema traits were rated as cuter overall. However, they found no main effect of gender and no interaction between gender and rating of the baby schema. They also found a significant main effect of the baby schema on ratings of motivation for caretaking. They also found a significant interaction between gender and baby schema. Their results indicated that females, overall, reported greater caretaking motivation to the pictures exhibiting high levels of the baby schema, whereas males showed no preference in caretaking between these high level images and the unmanipulated images. They found that the baby schema caused females to exhibit higher inclination for caretaking overall than males, despite equal ratings of perceived cuteness. Their findings indicated that humans are highly receptive to the baby schema and females' behaviours are especially motivated by the images. Sherman, Haidt and Coan (2009) found that humans are highly responsive to the characteristics that represent their young. It was known that features like a large and round forehead, full cheeks, large and low set eyes and a small chin typify youngness

4 and evoke affection as well as nurturing and careful behaviour. Sherman et al. found that humans who carry these traits are often deemed "cute" and they conducted a study investigating this "cuteness" involved with infantile physical morphology. They reasoned that, after being exposed to cute images associated with infants, careful and delicate responses might be stimulated as an evolutionary response to viewing helpless young. They examined whether viewing cute images of baby puppies or kittens led to superior performance on an immediate motor dexterity task. They opted to use the children's game of "Operation" to test fine motor performance in order to eliminate the speed requirement involved with other developed motor dexterity tasks (as they sought to strictly monitor carefulness). Sherman et al. tested 40 female undergraduate students with a mean age of Participants were assigned to one of two conditions: viewing and rating high cuteness images or viewing and rating low cuteness images. Participants were first asked to play the game of Operation, which required them to remove, with a small pair of metal tweezers, as many of the 12 small plastic pieces from various compartments of the game board without touching the tweezers to the edges of each compartment. Their recorded score was the number of successful retrievals before failure. Participants then viewed a slide show of images broken into three sections of nine images: the first and third sections depicted neutral stimuli and were identical across both conditions. The set of nine images presented in the middle were either puppies and kittens (high cuteness condition) or adult dogs and cats (low cuteness condition). Each image was shown for 10 seconds and each participant's heart rate was measured using an electrocardiogram throughout the experimental process. After the slideshow, participants were given a questiormaire regarding the emotional and physical impact of the slideshow as well as giving an overall rating on a six-point scale regarding

5 how cute the participants viewed the slideshow to be. Afterwards, participants were asked to play the game of Operation once more. The scores from before and after viewing the slideshow were compared. Sherman et al. found that cuteness of the images viewed did, in fact, affect subsequent performance on a task requiring carefulness participants showed greater performance improvement on the Operation task after viewing high-cuteness images in comparison to low-cuteness images. Nittono, Fukushima, Yano, Moriya (2012) conducted a similar study also investigating the effects of viewing cute images on subsequent motor dexterity tasks requiring careful behaviour. They criticized the fact that Sherman et al. did not take into account a measure of speed during their experiment. They believed that carefulness could result in one of two behaviours the participant could improve in carefulness by making a series of fast and accurate retrievals or a series of slow and meticulous retrievals ^both of which Nittono et al. believed to depict carefulness equally. In a variation on the experiment run by Sherman et al., they had participants play the children's game of Operation before and after exposure to pictures of cute baby animals or less cute adult animals. They recorded the changes in completion time for the task as well as the overall number of successful retrievals. They hypothesized that participants would shift towards a slower and more deliberate action behaviour after exposure to cute images and therefore completion time would grow and the score would improve. They also accounted for differences that may occur as a result of the participant's gender, assuming that the women tested by Sherman et al. would have been more reactive to infant animals as the nature of their sex a theory confirmed in experiments like that by Glocker et al. They tested 12 males and 12 females in the baby animal condition and 12 males and 12 females in the adult animal condition, with a mean age of They used

6 a Japanese game similar to the game of Operation used by Sherman et al. to test motor dexterity before and after rating the cuteness of seven images of either puppies and kittens or adult dogs and cats. Images were presented on 18 cm by 25 cm sheets of cardboard and participants were asked to rank the images in order of preference in 90 seconds. They found that pictures of baby animals were rated as cuter than adult animals (their results replicated those of Sherman et al.). Surprisingly, they found no main effect of gender during this experiment females and males seemed to react equally to the images. Just as they had hypothesized, those participants exposed to images of baby animals in comparison to adult animals not only improved in overall score of the subsequent motor dexterity game, but their completion time also increased, indicating that the viewing of cute images causes more deliberate and careful subsequent behaviour. A variation of the experiments done by both Sherman et al. (2009) and Nittono et al. (2012) was conducted in the present research. Participants were exposed to images of infant or adult humans to examine if the effects of the baby schema found in images of baby versus adult animals would transfer to human faces. Motor dexterity was similarly measured using a more modem version of the game Operation. Overall score (successful retrievals) and total completion time before and after examining 10 images was again recorded for each participant. The goal of the current experiment was to replicate the finding of Sherman at al. and Nittono et al. Method Participants Forty participants were randomly selected, by a Psychology 2280E student of Huron University College, for participation from within the London, Ontario region (based on

7 the experimenter's personal connections through the College and through community connections). Of these participants, 20 were male with a mean age of M=28.15 (SD-13.63) and 20 female with a mean age of M=31.25 (SD=12.07). All participants of this study were mandatorily 55 years of age or younger, in an attempt to exclude a population of older adults at risk for deteriorating motor dexterity skills (If participants were over this age restriction, after reading the consent form specifying this requirement, they voluntarily withdrew participation). No participants suffered from noticeable physical disabilities that may have impeded their motor dexterity. Participants were tested between 2 pm and 9 pm to hopefully test all participants at an optimal wakefulness. Ten participants of each sex were placed in the adult images condition and the other 10 participants were randomly assigned to the baby images condition using a number sequence created by a random number generator. No information regarding the participants' level of education was recorded. The extent to which each participant had interacted with babies (including whether the participant had previously had a child of his/her own) was also unknown. Materials Each participant was given a booklet consisting of an information sheet explaining the basic intent of the study and a consent form to sign pending agreement of participation in the study. Upon agreement of participation, participants were asked to play the children's game of "Operation" (Hasbro Canada, Longueuil, Quebec). The game board measured 38.5 cm long by 22.5 cm wide and required the retrieval of 13 game pieces, all measuring less than 1.2 cm long by 1.2 cm wide, from compartments of various shapes approximately 1.5 times the size of each game piece. Retrievals were made with a small pair of tweezers (7 cm long, 0.7 cm wide) attached to the game board by a 40 cm plastic

8 covered wire allowing for easy movement to any of the 13 game board compartments. Upon completion of the game, participants were presented with an explanation on how to properly use a seven-point rating scale and a definition of the word "cute" (retrieved from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary) that they would use for rating their particular set of pictures. Participants were shown 10 images of babies (as seen in appendix B) or adults (as seen in appendix C), depending on which condition each participant had been randomly assigned to, on pieces of glossy photo paper (27.9 cm long by 21.6 cm wide) and asked to rate on a rating sheet how "cute" they viewed each image to be on a series of identical seven-point scales (see appendix A). In each condition (baby or adult), there were five images of females and 5 images of males and all were smiling. The races of the faces shown were also varied in hopes of limiting any occurrences of racial prejudices. The participants' scores were recorded on a separate table by the observer. Procedure After having signed the participant consent form and having agreed to all of the terms and conditions of the study, participants were then categorized as male or female. Within each category, participants were then assigned to one of two separate conditions based on an order previously determined by a random number generator. Participants in both conditions were first given an explanation, by the experimenter, regarding how to properly play the game of Operation, regardless of whether they knew how to play or not. They were told that they could choose to retrieve any of the 13 game pieces in any order and that they were to keep playing until they had successfully retrieved all 13 game pieces or had accidentally made contact between the tweezers in their hand and the edge of one of the game compartments (this contact would trigger a buzzer). The amount

9 of time they spent playing the game before completing it or before failure (making accidental contact with the edge of a compartment) was recorded, as well as the total number of successful retrievals made before completion/failure. After playing the game, participants were handed a single sheet of paper in a sheet protector, with the definition of "cute" they were expected to adhere to when rating the 10 images of the study, as well as an explanation and example of how to properly understand and rate an image according to a seven-point scale. The definition of cute given was, "Cute: delightfully pretty or dainty; obviously contrived to charm; precious". The participants were then shown 10 images (of either adults or infants) and asked to rate how cute they viewed each image to be using a series of identical 7-point scales. Participants in the adults condition, as rating human adults on their level of cuteness was perceived as a more challenging task, were then orally reminded by the experimenter to rate each image strictly following the definition previously given and to avoid, as much as possible, allowing their rating of each image to be influenced by their attraction to the adult in the picture. Upon completion of the rating of each image presented, participants were then instructed to play the game of Operation once more. Again, the participants' amount time spent playing the game before completion/failure was recorded, as well as the total number of successful retrievals made before completion/failure. Results Figure 1 illustrates the difference in scores in time spent playing Operation (before completion or failure of the game) before and after viewing images of either babies or adults. Figure 2 shows the difference in scores in successful retrievals before and after exposure to these images. See appendix D, table 1 for the first analysis of variants (ANOVA) summary table measuring difference in time before and after viewing images

10 Figure J. Average difference scores of time spent playing Operation (before completion or failure) of males and females under the baby condition and under the adult condition.

11 -1.5 Figure 2. Average difference scores of number of successful retrievals (before completion or failure) of males and females under the baby condition and under the adult condition.

12 (of babies or adults). The mean score of difference in time for males viewing babies was A/=I.20 and for males viewing adults was M= The mean score of difference in time for females viewing babies was M=8.50 and for females viewing adults was M= A two-way between-subjects analysis of variants revealed that there was no significant main effect of sex on difference in time scores, F(l,36)=0.05,/7>0.05. There was also no significant main effect of viewing adults versus babies on difibrence in time scores, F(l,36)=0.15,/7>0.05. The interaction between sex and the viewing of adult versus baby faces was also statistically insignificant, F(l,36)=0.03,/7>0.05. See appendix D, table 2 for the second analysis of variants summary table measuring the difference in scores in number of successful retrievals before and after examining images (of babies versus adults). The mean score of difference in successful retrievals for males viewing babies was M=0.90 and for males viewing adults was M=-l.30. The mean score of difference in successful retrievals for females viewing babies was M=1.40 and for females viewing adults was M=0.20. Again, a two-way between-subjects analysis of variants revealed that there was no significant main effect of sex on difference in successful scores, F(l,36)=0.63, p>0.05. The main effect of viewing adults versus babies on difference in successful retrieval scores was approaching, but did not reach, statistical significance, F(l,36)=1.81, p>0.05. Again the interaction between sex and the viewing of babies versus adults was insignificant F(l,36)=0.16, p>0.05. The average male cuteness ratings for images of adults was 3.87 (SD=\.0\) and average female cuteness ratings for images of adults was 4.13 {SD=1.03). Average male cuteness ratings for images of infants was 5.15 (5'Z>=0.05) and average female cuteness ratings for images of infants was 6.07 {SD=OM).

13 Discussion The findings in the present study did not replicate the findings by Sherman et al. (2009) and Nittono et al. (2012) indicating that either the sample was too narrow or the effects of the baby schema do not transfer to human faces. There was no main effect of sex on time spent playing the game of Operation (before completion of the game or failure by making accidental contact between the tweezers and the edges of the game board compartments) or on the number of successful retrievals made, before versus after looking at images. This result indicated that there was no noteworthy difference between males and females in overall game-playing ability. There was also no main effect of whether the participant viewed images of babies or adults on time or successful retrieval scores, disproving the hypothesis that images of babies would evoke more careful game play resulting in large time differences or more successful retrievals. On average, females viewed the images of babies as more cute than males found them, but this result did not impact their results when playing the motor-dexterity game. Both males and females rated the images of babies as cuter on average than the pictures of adults. This fact indicated that results were not skewed by typically less cute than average images of babies or cuter than average images of adults. There were several noteworthy limitations of this study. There were no reliability or validity checks done on the images used during this study, meaning that it was not completely clear that the images evoked only feelings of care as a result of cuteness. Almost all of the images used in this study depicted a "happy" looking adult or baby (most were seen smiling). The images could have been rated as higher on the cuteness scale as a result of bringing forth positive emotions. The images of babies in particular

14 would benefit from undergoing a screening process to find a series of 10 images that clearly displayed the baby schema. Several of the participants (especially males under the age of 25) struggled with rating the pictures of adults on cuteness, frequently making comments to the fact that they felt unable to rate another male on cuteness. These comments indicated to the researcher that they were being influenced by the level of attraction they felt towards the picture. There were several extraneous variables that may have influenced performance on the motor dexterity task. Many participants, regardless of the condition of images they were exposed to, improved on the second attempt at playing the game. This result may have been caused by an inner level of competition motivating them to do better on their second attempt. There is also a certain level of strategy involved with the game of Operation. Because participants were asked to removed the game pieces in any order, they most likely would improve in performance on a second attempt simply because of having learned which pieces are easier to remove than others. However, many of the participants performed more poorly after having looked at images (regardless of whether those images were of babies or adults). This result may be due to people who naturally feel less inclined to compete with themselves and better their scores on a second attempt. The participant growing more physically tired or simply growing tired of spending his/her time playing the children's game may also have explained this result. Although all participants were tested in a neutral room, with only the experimenter present, because of the fact that the testing was completed at the participant's leisure, some participants were tested in their own homes while some were tested in a more common setting. Because people are typically more comfortable and at ease in their own

15 homes, results on a motor dexterity task may have been skewed simply due to how comfortable the participant was in the setting. It would be an interesting future area of research to examine if there is a difference in performance after viewing images of babies or adults in participants who have themselves had babies. It is expected that participants who themselves had previously had children, or who have had prolonged exposure to young children through familial relationships or employment, would be more affected by viewing images of infants because of their first hand caregiving experience. It could also be hypothesized that those participants who have had little experience with infants, after being exposed to images of babies, may act more nervously as a result of unfamiliarity and the social expectations that exist requiring one to act protectively and matemally/patemally around young children. It would also be interesting to research if the cuteness ratings given to infants by adults who have had children of their ovra would be, on average, higher than those who have not had children (because of the first hand experience with infants that parenthood provides) or lower because of the comparison that would easily be made between their own child and the image of the child provided to them. It would also be interesting in the future to do a comparison study between several different age groups and their cuteness ratings as well as their resulting performance on a motor dexterity task. Finally, because pictures of infants are static it would be interesting to see if results would be influenced in a replication of this study exposing participants to videos of infants versus adults or real-life interaction with a baby or adult. It would be reasonable to expect that an interaction with an infant or adult that seemed more authentic to the participant would more greatly influence his or her resulting carefulness.

16 References Glocker, M. L., Langleben, D. D., Ruparel, K., Loughead, J. W., Gur, R. C, & Sachser, N. (2009). Baby schema in infant faces induces cuteness perception and motivation for caretaking in adults. Ethology international journal of behavioural biology, 115, doi: l/j x Lorenz, K. (1943). Die angeborenen formen mdglicher erfahrung. The International Journal of Behavioural Biology, 5, doi: l/j x Nittono, H., Fukushima, M., Yano, A., & Moriya, H. (2012). The power of kawaii: Viewing cute images promotes a careful behavior and narrows attentional focus. PLoS ONE, 7. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from %2Fjoumal.pone doi: /joumal.pone Sherman, G. D., Haidt, J., & Coan, J. A. (2009). Viewing cute images increases behavioral carefulness. Emotion, 9, doi: /a

17 Appendix A Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute Image : Very Non-Cute Very Cute

18 Appendix B Baby Images

19 Baby 1 retrieved from: Baby 2 retrieved from: Baby 3 retrieved from: Baby 4 retrieved from: Baby 5 retrieved from: Baby 6 retrieved from: Baby 7 retrieved from: Baby 8 retrieved from: Baby 9 retrieved from: Baby 10 retrieved from:

20 Appendix C Adult Images

21 Adult 1 retrieved from: Adult 2 retrieved from: Adult 3 retrieved from: Adult 4 retrieved from: Adult 5 retrieved from: Adult 6 retrieved from: Adult 7 retrieved from: Adult 8 retrieved from: Adult 9 retrieved from: Adult 10 retrieved from:

22 Appendix D Table 1 Source SS df MS F Sig. Sex Adult/Baby Sex* Adult/Baby Error Total Table 2 Source SS df MS F Sig. Sex Adult/Baby Sex* Adult/Baby Error Total