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Infant Face Perception
Featural vs. Configural Processing of Faces
and "Greebles"
Face Features (4-, 6, & 7-Month-Olds)
In this study, we are interested in whether
infants process the independent features of a face or whether
they process the correlation among those features. When adults
process an upright face, they process the face as a whole, but
when they see an inverted face, adults' configural processing
breaks down and they process the independent features of a face.
(When you see an upside face, does it not look weird?) If this
study, your baby will either sit in a car seat (4-month-olds)
or sit on your lap (6- and 7-month-olds) and will face a computer
monitor. On that monitor, we will present a series of color
photographs of faces. On each presentation, we will record how
long your baby looks at the face. Your infant will see two faces
over and over again until s/he no longer looks very long at
them. This drop in looking time is an indication to us that
the baby recognizes those faces and is no longer interested
in looking at them. At that point, we will show your baby some
new faces and see if they notice. One of the faces will be a
totally novel face and the other will be a combination of the
first two faces the baby had seen. By using drawing software
on the computer, we were able to take the internal features
(e.g., eyes, nose, mouth) of one face and blend them with the
external features (face contour, eyebrows, hair) of the other
face. In general, if infants at a particular age "perk
up" to this combination face, then we would conclude that
infants at that age process more than just the independent features;
we would conclude that they are sensitive to the relationship
between the features. Otherwise, why else would infants view
that combination face as different than the ones they were bored
of, unless they recognized that it was a new combination of
internal and external features. Some of our results have been
published or presented at conferences. Links to those papers,
posters as well as some of the stimuli can be accessed below.
Greebles (4- & 7-Month-Olds)
This study is very similar to the Face Features
study, except that the stimuli are novel objects called "Greebles"
(see below). By studying infantsŐ featural vs. configural processing
of these novel objects, we are able to investigate whether the
development of face processing is similar to or different from
the development of processing other objects. In other words,
it allows us to ask the question: Are faces special? Although
we have not completed these studies, preliminary results suggest
that faces are indeed special. The next step, of course, will
be to try to determine why they might be special.
Related Publications:
Related Convention Presentations:
- Cashon, C.H. & Cohen, L.B. (1999, April).
Infant Face Perception: Do infants process independent features or the face as a whole?
Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque,
N.M.
- Cohen, L.B. & Cashon, C.H. (2000, July).
A puzzle in infant face perception. Poster
presented at International Conference on Infant Studies, Brighton,
England.
- Cohen, L. B. & Cashon, C. H. (In press). Infant
perception and cognition. In R. Lerner, A. Easterbrooks,
and J. Mistry (Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of psychology.
Volume 6, Developmental Psychology. II. Infancy. New York: Wiley and Sons.
Example Stimuli:
Greebles Pictures
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