Two- to three-month-old infants prefer moving face patterns to moving top-heavy patterns

Development of Attention to Faces during the First 3 Years: Influences of Stimulus Type

The development of attention toward faces was explored during the first 3 years of life in 54 children aged between 3 and 36 months. In contrast to previous research, attention to faces was assessed using both static images and a dynamic video sequence in the same participants. Separate analyses at each age and exploratory longitudinal analyses indicate a preference for faces during the first year, followed by a decline during the second year. These results suggest that attention to faces does not follow a linear increasing pattern over development, and that social attention patterns are influenced by stimulus characteristics.

Face Orientation and Motion Differently Affect the Deployment of Visual Attention in Newborns and 4-Month-Old Infants

Orienting visual attention allows us to properly select relevant visual information from a noisy environment. Despite extensive investigation of the orienting of visual attention in infancy, it is unknown whether and how stimulus characteristics modulate the deployment of attention from birth to 4 months of age, a period in which the efficiency in orienting of attention improves dramatically. The aim of the present study was to compare 4-month-old infants' and newborns' ability to orient attention from central to peripheral stimuli that have the same or different attributes. In Experiment 1, all the stimuli were dynamic and the only attribute of the central and peripheral stimuli to be manipulated was face orientation. In Experiment 2, both face orientation and motion of the central and peripheral stimuli were contrasted. The number of valid trials and saccadic latency were measured at both ages. Our results demonstrated that the deployment of attention is mainly influenced by motion at birth, while it is also influenced by face orientation at 4-month of age. These findings provide insight into the development of the orienting visual attention in the first few months of life and suggest that maturation may be not the only factor that determines the developmental change in orienting visual attention from birth to 4 months.

Infants' ability to respond to depth from the retinal size of human faces: comparing monocular and binocular preferential-looking

To examine sensitivity to pictorial depth cues in young infants (4 and 5 months-of-age), we compared monocular and binocular preferential looking to a display on which two faces were equidistantly presented and one was larger than the other, depicting depth from the size of human faces. Because human faces vary little in size, the correlation between retinal size and distance can provide depth information. As a result, adults perceive a larger face as closer than a smaller one. Although binocular information for depth provided information that the faces in our display were equidistant, under monocular viewing, no such information was provided. Rather, the size of the faces indicated that one was closer than the other. Infants are known to look longer at apparently closer objects. Therefore, we hypothesized that infants would look longer at a larger face in the monocular than in the binocular condition if they perceived depth from the size of human faces. Because the displays were identical in the two conditions, any difference in looking-behavior between monocular and binocular viewing indicated sensitivity to depth information. Results showed that 5-month-old infants preferred the larger, apparently closer, face in the monocular condition compared to the binocular condition when static displays were presented. In addition, when presented with a dynamic display, 4-month-old infants showed a stronger 'closer' preference in the monocular condition compared to the binocular condition. This was not the case when the faces were inverted. These results suggest that even 4-month-old infants respond to depth information from a depth cue that may require learning, the size of faces.

Face preference in infancy and its relation to motor activity

Infants’ preference for faces was investigated in a cross-sectional sample of 75 children, aged 3 to 11 months, and 23 adults. A visual preference paradigm was used where pairs of faces and toys were presented side-by-side while eye gaze was recorded. In addition, motor activity was assessed via parent report and the relation between motor activity and face preference was examined. Face preference scores followed an inverted U-shaped developmental trajectory with no face preference in 3-month-olds, a strong face preference in 5- and 9-month-olds, and a weaker face preference in 11-month-olds. Adults showed no reliable face preference. Motor activity was a significant predictor of face preference in 3-month-old infants, supporting the presence of motor-social connections in early infancy.

Encouragement is Nothing Without Control: Factors Influencing the Development of Reaching and Face Preference

Four parent-guided training procedures aimed at facilitating independent reaching were compared in 36 three-month-old infants recruited for this study and 36 infants taken from previously published reports. Training procedures systematically varied whether parental encouragement to act on external objects was provided, and whether self-produced experiences of moving an object were present. Reaching behavior was assessed before and after training, and face preference was measured after training by recording infants’ eye gaze in a visual-preference task. Results showed that simultaneous experiences of parental encouragement and self-produced object motion encouraged successful reaching and face preference. Neither experience in isolation was effective, indicating that both external encouragement and self-produced action experiences are necessary to facilitate successful reaching. However, experiences with self-produced object motion increased infants’ face preference. This result provides evidence for a developmental link between self-produced motor experiences and the emergence of face preference in three-month-old infants.