Face Perception Essay

3129 Words7 Pages

• Briefly review literature on young infants face perception and recognition.
Face perception is when someone is able to analyze and interpret the face, mainly the human face. In this particular case, the perception is in regards to infants. Recognition is defined in a similar manner. It is when something has been previously seen or heard. Face perception during early infancy (Article 7) by Mondloch, Lewis, Budreau, Maurer, Dannemiller, Stephens, and Gathercoal does a great job explaining young infants face perception and recognition. In this article, the researchers decided to conduct an experiment on newborns, 6-week-olds, and 12-week-olds. They used a standardized method, which was called the Teller Acuity card procedure. This procedure was when an observer did not know what was presented each trial and tried to see if the infants preferred one of the stimuli, or cards, over another. There were five cards in total. Three were the experimental cards and two were the control, or tester, cards. For the experimental cards, one card consisted of a config and its inversion. A config is an outline of a head shape and it has three black dots inside the shape forming a set of eyes and mouth. The inversion is when the “config” is flipped upside down. The second card consisted of a spectrum of a face and its’ amplitude spectrum. The amplitude spectrum was like the opposite. It was a fuzzy spectrum and you couldn’t see a face. The third card consisted of a positive and negative contrast face. One of the faces was a positive contrast and the other face was a negative contrast. For the control cards, these cards were used to test the validity of the card procedure and it tested every age. Both of the cards consisted of wide black and white ...

... middle of paper ...

...It shows that 3-5 month-old infants are able to follow a gaze within their visual range or field. As for joint attention and its developmental milestone, Gredebäck, Fikke, and Melinder conducted their study at 2-8 months of age. As far as the results, they found out that 2 month-old infants were too young to follow a gaze but 4 month-olds were able to. In regards to 6-8 month old infants, it showed that they were able to consistently participate in joint attention.
In conclusion, eyes are the important factors when it comes to anyone’s attention and cognition. It is another form of communication and its own language helps with the cognitive development of young infants to adults. Through eye contact, joint attention, and gaze direction, they all help with teaching an infant about nonverbal communication and understanding the emotions and perceptions of other people.

More about Face Perception Essay

Open Document