Faceness or complexity: Evidence from newborn visual tracking of facelike stimuli

doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(99)80003-4

Infant Behavior and Development

Volume 22, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 17-35

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-6383(99)80003-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

The hypothesis that facelike stimuli represent a special class to the newborn was examined in four studies using a head turning procedure that measured both newborns' eye and head tracking of moving stimuli. In two studies, 33 newborns (< 2 days) were shown stimuli containing the same facial features in different spatial arrangements and a luminance-matched blank control. In two other studies, 26 newborns (< 2 days) were shown stimuli containing a facelike stimulus and selected elements of the face: Two eyes, a single eye, or a mouth. Both grouped and individual data showed that infants tracked moving stimuli containing facelike features and stimuli containing two eyes farther than a blank; newborns tracked the patterned stimuli equally far. When the stimulus contained a linear arrangement of facial features, one eye, or one mouth, it was tracked less far. Most newborns showed no preference for either of two face-like stimuli and they turned their heads farther to a face compared to two eyes. The results support a linear systems model of infant visual attention/preference.

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^•: Dr. Megan Easterbrook, Department of Psychology, Nipissing University, 100 College Drive, Box 5002, North Bay, Ontario, PIB 8L7 Canada; Phone: (705) 474-3461, Ext. 4454; Fax: (705) 474-1947

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ArticleFaceness or complexity: Evidence from newborn visual tracking of facelike stimuli

Abstract

Cognition

Infant Behavior and Development

Infant Behavior and Development

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

How to build a baby that can read minds: Cognitive mechanisms in mind-reading

Cahiers de Psychologic Cognitive

Attachment

Infant perception of the structural properties of the face

Developmental Psychology

Infant timbre perception: Discrimination of spectral envelopes

Perception and Psychophysics

A developmental look at an auditory illusion: The precedence effect

Developmental Psychobiology

Infant visual perception

The origin of form perception

Scientific American

Pattern vision in newborn infants

Science

Article
Faceness or complexity: Evidence from newborn visual tracking of facelike stimuli