Abstract

Attention bias, the differential allocation of attention to foreground objects versus background context in everyday perception, is shaped by culture and exhibits patterns similar to adults from approximately age seven onwards. However, limited research demonstrates the direct influence of caregivers as cultural transmitters in shaping attention patterns during early development. This study measured cultural attention bias using a scene description task among 127 dyads of Korean children aged 3-5 years and their mothers, and examined whether individual differences in mothers’ attention bias predicted their children’s attention bias. The results showed that both children aged 3-5 and their mothers displayed foreground-focused attention patterns in their descriptions. This pattern differed from previous findings in Korean adults but resembled attention bias patterns observed in North America. Furthermore, the stronger the mothers’ tendency to describe foreground objects, the greater the proportion of foreground references in their children’s descriptions. This predictive effect remained significant after controlling for children’s age, suggesting that caregivers, as cultural transmitters, may directly contribute to shaping children’s attention patterns during early development.