Attribution of Pupil Size as a Function of Facial Valence and Age in American and Persian Children

Abstract

This study tested the hypothesis that pupil size is primarily a cue to sexual interest which becomes salient through incidental learning and/or maturation at age 16 (or the onset of sexual maturity). Because the evidence for this hypothesis is completely confounded by possible culturally determined social learning effects, samples of both Persian children, i.e., children who were reared in a "pupil-intensive" culture and American children were used as subjects. These subjects who ranged in age from 7-10 years were tested using one of the tasks which Hess' group had used to establish 16 years as the age of onset of the salience of pupil-size cues. The results show that pupil size is a salient inter-personal cue for the 8-year-old Persian children which was further articulated in the older Persian groups. Evidence was noted that offered modest support for placing the age of onset of awareness of pupillary cues between 10 and 12 years in American children. Together these data question the validity of age 16 as the age at which pupil-size cues become salient and offer support for a social learning explanation of these behaviors.