Infantile perception of the human face

• Main Author: Allyn, George
• Published: Royal Holloway, University of London 1972
• Subjects: 153.7; Developmental Psychology
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.704216

When infants were allowed to fixate their own mother's face under various degrees of completeness, all showed differential fixation. A face without both eyes was fixated significantly less frequently than were the eyes only with or without other facial features and was also associated with a negative reaction of actively refusing to look. A full or complete face, however, was not fixated any more frequently than an incomplete which contained eyes. In another study, infants were allowed to fixate two television monitors on which were simultaneously presented filmed versions of a strange female face under various degrees of completeness. In spite of decided positional preferences, the results of the two studies correlated significantly, which indicates that infants responded to a filmed version of a face as face-like. It was therefore suggested that the human face as a visual stimulus can be conceived to be built up in the manner of a heterogeneous summation effect organized around a privileged feature, namely, one eye. The literature on imprinting was reviewed and the distinction between the minimally sufficient and the optimal conditions was drawn. Moreover, different types of imprinting were argued for. Then the development of attachment in the human infant, with particular reference to perception of the human face, was compared with imprinted recognition of and response to visual stimuli in birds, and it was pointed out that by 4 to 6 months, most infants evidence behaviour which indicates an internalized face schema.