Newborns' local processing in schematic facelike configurations

Simion, Francesca; Farroni, Teresa; Cassia, Viola Macchi; Turati, Chiara; Barba, Beatrice Dalla

doi:10.1348/026151002760390800

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…A conflict between different facial regions of interest might be in play. It is now established that neonates are able to discriminate the inner features of a face (Simion, Farroni, Cassia, Turati & Barba, 2002; Turati & Simion, 2002), and prefer photographs of real faces with eyes open rather than closed (Batki, Baron‐Cohen, Wheelwright, Connellan & Ahluwalia, 2000), or faces with direct rather than averted gaze (Farroni, Csibra, Simon & Johnson, 2002). Newborn infants should thus attribute more interest to a face than to an isolated mouth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human newborns match tongue protrusion of disembodied human and robotic mouths

Soussignan

Courtial

Canet

et al. 2010

Developmental Science

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No evidence had been provided so far of newborns’ capacity to give a matching response to 2D stimuli. We report evidence from 18 newborns who were presented with three types of stimuli on a 2D screen. The stimuli were video-recorded displays of tongue protrusion shown by: (a) a human face, (b) a human tongue from a disembodied mouth, and (c) an artificial tongue from a robotic mouth. Compared to a baseline condition, neonates increased significantly their tongue protrusion when seeing disembodied human and artificial tongue movements, but not when seeing a 2D full-face protruding tongue. This result was interpreted as revealing the exploration of top-heavy patterns of the 2D face that distracted infants’ attention from the tongue. Results also showed progressively more accurate matching (full tongue protrusion) throughout repeated exposure to each kind of stimulus. Such findings are not in line with the predictions of the innate releasing mechanism (IRM) model or of the oral exploration hypothesis. They support the active intermodal mapping (AIM) hypothesis that emphasizes not only the importance of repeated experience, as would the associative sequence learning (ASL) hypothesis, but also predicts a differential learning and progressive correction of the response adapted to each stimulus.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human newborns match tongue protrusion of disembodied human and robotic mouths

Soussignan

Courtial

Canet

et al. 2010

Developmental Science

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“…In summary, the existing literature on human infants leaves unresolved the question of whether there is a specific or non‐specific mechanism, which could explain the spontaneous preference for face‐like stimuli seen in newborns. Part of the controversy may depend upon the effect of early learning (for evidence on fast learning about the appearance of faces shortly after birth, see Bushnel, Sai & Mullin, 1989; Simion, Farroni, Macchi Cassia, Turati & Dalla Barba, 2002; Turati, Macchi Cassia, Simion & Leo, 2006; Walton & Bower, 1993). Carefully controlled studies with animals could help resolve this issue, but surprisingly little research has been aimed at investigating what specific features of the head region stimulate CONSPEC in chicks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Faces are special for newly hatched chicks: evidence for inborn domain‐specific mechanisms underlying spontaneous preferences for face‐like stimuli

Rosa‐Salva

Regolin

Vallortígara

2010

Developmental Science

140

133

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It is currently being debated whether human newborns' preference for faces is due to an unlearned, domain-specific and configural representation of the appearance of a face, or to general mechanisms, such as an up-down bias (favouring top-heavy stimuli, which have more elements in their upper part). Here we show that 2-day-old domestic chicks, visually naïve for the arrangement of inner facial features, spontaneously prefer face-like, schematic, stimuli. This preference is maintained when the up-down bias is controlled for (Experiment1) or when put in direct conflict with facedness (Experiment 4). In contrast, we found no evidence for the presence of an up-down bias in chicks (Experiment 2). Moreover, our results indicate that the eye region of stimuli is crucial in determining the expression of spontaneous preferences for faces (Experiments 3 and 4).

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“…Past research has shown that human neonates already prefer normally configured facial features and are more likely to track a face‐like pattern than a non‐face‐like pattern (Goren, Sarty, & Wu, ). Further experiments have shown that newborns not only prefer faces but also more generally top‐heavy patterns (Valenza, Simion, Cassia, & Umilta, ) and specifically, top‐heavy patterns with a curvilinear external contour (Simion, Farroni, Cassia, Turati, & Dalla Barba, ). This initial attentional preference towards faces is thought to produce biassed input, resulting in processing advantages for the most commonly encountered types of faces.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity to First‐Order Relations of Facial Elements in Infant Rhesus Macaques

Paukner

Bower

Simpson

et al. 2013

Infant and Child Development

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Faces are visually attractive to both human and nonhuman primates. Human neonates are thought to have a broad template for faces at birth and prefer face-like to non-face-like stimuli. To better compare developmental trajectories of face processing phylogenetically, here we investigated preferences for face-like stimuli in infant rhesus macaques using photographs of real faces. We presented infant macaques aged 15–25days with human, macaque, and abstract faces with both normal and linear arrangements of facial features, and measured infants’ gaze durations, number of fixations, and latency to look to each face using eye-tracking technology. There was an overall preference for normal over linear facial arrangements for abstract and monkey faces, but not human faces. Moreover, infant macaques looked less at monkey faces than at abstract or human faces. These results suggest that species and facial configurations affect face processing in infant macaques, and we discuss potential explanations for these findings. Further, carefully controlled studies are required to ascertain whether infant macaques’ face template can be considered as broad as human infants’ face template.

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Newborns' local processing in schematic facelike configurations

Cited by 22 publications

References 28 publications

Human newborns match tongue protrusion of disembodied human and robotic mouths

Human newborns match tongue protrusion of disembodied human and robotic mouths

Faces are special for newly hatched chicks: evidence for inborn domain‐specific mechanisms underlying spontaneous preferences for face‐like stimuli

Sensitivity to First‐Order Relations of Facial Elements in Infant Rhesus Macaques

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