Novelty and frequency as determinants of newborn preference

Abstract

The debate over whether infants prefer a familiar stimulus over a novel stimulus has persisted for over 30 years, and there is evidence which supports both sides of the question. However, the research which supports the preference for the familiar uses different measures than that which supports the preference for novelty. In the first experiment, the preference for the familiar was tested by making one stimulus more familiar than the others presented. A target of à familiar' face was presented eight times more frequently than the other faces. During the experiment, the infants could choose at which face they looked and for how long. It was found that the infants significantly preferred the familiar face over any one of the novel faces, especially when the familiar face was presented first. Substituting auditory for visual stimuli, the second experiment was a replication of the first experiment. Consonant±vowel syllables were used instead of faces. Overall, 17 stimuli were used: one repeating`familiar' sound, and 16 novel sounds. It was found that the infants significantly preferred the familiar sound over any of the novel sounds. As found in Experiment 1, the infants also had a greater preference for the familiar sound when it was presented first.

Newborn categorization of vowel‐like sounds

“…In that case we would expect listening times to increase rapidly and then fall off over the course of the experiment. This would be in accord with the theory of Hunter and Ames (1988) and the results of Barrille et al (1999). It is possible that the newborns could have heard each sound as a different sound; in that case, we would not expect a rapid increase in attention due to familiarity.…”

“…Hunter and Ames (1988) have presented a convincing theoretical case that the pattern of attention shows an initial increase with increasing familiarity with a stimulus, followed by a decline. This pattern did occur in a different experiment that used the same presentation and attention-measuring techniques as the current study (Barrille, Armstrong & Bower, 1999). Each newborn in the current study was presented with 21 stimuli in a progressive series.…”

“…These studies (e.g. Walton, 1992;Barrille et al, 1999) have typically found that over a long sequence the time spent attending to each stimulus declines monotonically with distance from the start of the list. The infants here, by contrast, showed a W-pattern, with a decline, a recovery, a second decline Newborn vowel perception 225 and a second recovery.…”

“…The Hunter and Ames model (1988) is designed to elucidate these complex processes. We have found that a short-term familiarization period results in preference for the familiar over the novel, provided that the newborn has a basis for assimilating one stimulus to the familiar category and the other to a non-familiar category (Barrille et al, 1999). Thus, suppose we present a newborn with stimuli i4 and i6.…”

Attentional Effects of Masked Famous Faces (But Not Names) and Subjective Evaluations of a Target Person

“…An important factor affecting the salience of a face is its familiarity, and, accordingly, a familiar face is more likely to attract attention than an unfamiliar face (e.g., Devue & Bredart, 2008). Even new-born infants can show a preference for attending to familiar rather than unfamiliar faces when the faces are familiarised within the experimental context (e.g., Barrile, Armstrong, & Bower, 1999).…”