Response to novelty as an indicator of visual discrimination in the human infant

Abstract

Measures of 3-month-old infants' visual fixation of each of a pair of stimuli were obtained before and after a 412-minute "familiarization period" in which one of the pair was presented without the other. Under all conditions, time spent looking at the familiarized stimulus showed a downward trend during the familiarization period. No further significant results were obtained when an initially nonpreferred stimulus was familiarized. Under conditions in which the initially preferred stimulus was familiarized, it was looked at significantly less after familiarization. When stimuli differed only in form or in color, familiarization did not affect subsequent looking time for the nonfamiliarized stimulus. However, when both color and form differed, the nonfamiliarized stimulus elicited increased looking time postfamiliarization. The results indicate that 3-month-old infants can discriminate circles from crosses. Since evidence of this discrimination does not appear in spontaneous visual preference, the procedure used in this study may have methodological value.