Researchers found that children who are successfully learning a new taskuse more gaze aversion than those who are not improving or are gettingworse at the task.
They also found that averting the gaze when carrying out a new ordifficult task is most common among children between the ages of fourand six.
And children were found to look away less when being tested by someonethey know.
Dr Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon, who led the study for the Economic andSocial Research Council, said that from the point of view of a teacher,gaze aversion is a positive sign that a child is developing theirunderstanding.
She said, 'These results are important because they show that childrenavert their gaze when they are trying to carry out a task which isdifficult or with which they are not yet familiar. That means that gazeaversion is a useful thing for teachers, carers and parents to knowabout.'
The findings by the team from the University of Stirling were consistentwith its previous research that concluded that looking away is a skillwe learn to use by the age of five to help us concentrate on difficultmental tasks. It found that levels of gaze aversion can provide usefulsigns about children's level of engagement and progress with tasks theyhave been set.
Another study by the university found that teaching young children tolook away when answering difficult questions could help to improve theirproblem-solving abilities (News, 19 January 2006).
FURTHER INFORMATION
'Children's Eye Gaze: Associated and physiological states' is atwww.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk.
