Inattentional blindness (IB) refers to the nature of an individual being unaware of an unexpected stimulus when focusing on an attentional task. Investigation into IB provides an innovative approach for the research of attentional bias that is connected with an individual’s immediate attentional capture. This study explored the effect of emotional valence and age of faces on the IB rates of children and adults. We employed a between-subject experimental design with a 2 (age of participants: child, adult) × 2 (age of face: child face, adult face) × 2 (emotional valence: positive, negative) method and used the classic IB task of cross judgment. The participants included 79 adults (54.63 ± 8.192 years old) and 78 children (10.62 ± 2.32 years old). The results showed that: (1) The IB rates of the two groups differed significantly. Children performed better than adults in detecting the faces appearing unexpectedly. (2) The effect of emotional valence only emerged on adult participants’ IB. Adults were significantly more likely to detect the positive-emotional faces than the negative-emotional ones. (3) The age of a face was not a significant factor to predict participants’ IB. Neither children nor adults showed a preference for the faces of a specific age (e.g., their own age). These findings revealed the distinct characteristics of attentional capture of children and adults when confronting unexpected facial stimuli.

注意力不集中（IB）指的是个体在专注于注意力任务时不知​​道意外刺激的性质。对IB的调查为研究注意力偏见提供了一种创新方法，该偏见与个人的即时注意力捕获有关。这项研究探讨了情绪化合价和面部年龄对儿童和成人的IB率的影响。我们采用受试者间实验设计，采用2（参与者年龄：儿童，成人）×2（脸部年龄：儿童脸，成人脸）×2（情感价：正面，负面）方法，并使用经典的IB任务交叉判断。参与者包括79名成人（54.63±8.192岁）和78名儿童（10.62±2.32岁）。结果表明：（1）两组的IB率差异显着。在检测出意外出现的面孔时，儿童的表现要比成年人好。（2）情绪价的影响只出现在成年参与者的IB上。与否定情绪的面孔相比，成年人更容易发现正情绪的面孔。（3）面部年龄并不是预测参与者的IB的重要因素。儿童和成人都没有偏爱特定年龄（例如自己的年龄）的面孔。这些发现揭示了面对意外的面部刺激时，儿童和成人注意力捕获的明显特征。（3）面部年龄并不是预测参与者的IB的重要因素。儿童和成人都没有偏爱特定年龄（例如自己的年龄）的面孔。这些发现揭示了面对意外的面部刺激时，儿童和成人注意力捕获的独特特征。（3）面部年龄并不是预测参与者的IB的重要因素。儿童和成人都没有偏爱特定年龄（例如自己的年龄）的面孔。这些发现揭示了面对意外的面部刺激时，儿童和成人注意力捕获的独特特征。