Developmental Changes in the Scanning of Faces by Young Infants

Child DevelopmentPublished 1 June 1976

Daphne Maurer, Philip Salapatek

DOI10.2307/1128813

Source URL

Citations514

SJR quartileQ1

SJR score2.19

SNIP2.13

TL;DR

1-month-olds fixated away from the faces most of the time, looked at more features, and were more likely to look at internal features, especially the eyes, although in some respects it appears unique to faces.

Abstract

6 1-month-old infants and 6 2-month-old infants each viewed 3 faces (his mother's, a strange woman's, and a strange man's) while his eye movements were recorded by corneal photography. The 1-month-olds fixated away from the faces most of the time, and they looked at their mothers even less often than at the strangers. When they did fixate a face, they usually chose a limited portion of the perimeter. By constrast, 2-month-olds fixated the faces most of the time, looked at more features, and were more likely to look at internal features, especially the eyes. This scanning resembles that reported previously for 2-dimensional shapes, although in some respects it appears unique to faces.

Keywords

NeuroscienceEngineering

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