Attentional processes in children are tuned toward their mother. It is unclear whether this is a cognitively controlled or more automatic, stimulus-driven process. Therefore, 172 children (age 9-13) were assigned to either a cognitively controlled or a stimulus-driven task measuring the breadth of their attentional field around their mother.Results demonstrated a narrower field around the mother for children completing the more stimulus-driven task. Moreover, only for the stimulus-driven task, this effect was linked with the interaction between children's age and self-reported trust in maternal support.More trust was linked with a narrower attentional field around the mother in younger children, but with a less narrow field in older children. This resembles the expected age-related shift toward increased autonomy and points at stimulus-driven attentional processes.attachment, attentional bias, attentional breadth, middle childhood, mother-child relationship, trust
| I NTR OD U CTI ONAccording to attachment theory, primary caregivers like mothers are crucial for children's development because young children need their mother to ensure survival (Bowlby, 1969). Bowlby (1969) proposed that care-related experiences with the mother are stored as an internal representation or internal working model. When infants repeatedly experience sensitive maternal responses to distress, they develop secure attachment representations, which means that they will trust that they can rely on the mother as a secure base from which to solicit support (Bowlby, 1969;Waters & Waters, 2006). Instead, in the context of absent or inconsistent maternal responses to distress, children develop insecure attachment representations and less trust. These internal working models determine how future information regarding caregivers will be cognitively processed (i.e., attention, memory, and interpretation), affecting perceived social Social Development. 2018;27:95-108.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sode