Staring us in the face? An embodied theory of innate face preference

Abstract

Human expertise in face perception grows over development, but even within minutes of birth, infants exhibit an extraordinary sensitivity to face-like stimuli. The dominant theory accounts for innate face detection by proposing that the neonate brain contains an innate face detection device, dubbed 'Conspec'. Newborn face preference has been promoted as some of the strongest evidence for innate knowledge, and forms a canonical stage for the modern form of the nature-nurture debate in psychology. Interpretation of newborn face preference results has concentrated on monocular stimulus properties, with little mention or focused investigation of potential binocular involvement. However, the question of whether and how newborns integrate the binocular visual streams bears directly on the generation of observable visual preferences. In this theoretical paper, we employ a synthetic approach utilizing robotic and computational models to draw together the threads of binocular integration and face preference in newborns, and demonstrate cases where the former may explain the latter. We suggest that a system-level view considering the binocular embodiment of newborn vision may offer a mutually satisfying resolution to some long-running arguments in the polarizing debate surrounding the existence and causal structure of newborns' 'innate knowledge' of faces.

The Human Fetus Preferentially Engages with Face-like Visual Stimuli

“…There has been much debate on how and why this preference is present in the emerging visual system [23,24]. A comprehensive review of two decades of research offers an extension to the original theoretical model put forward in explanation of newborn face preference [25].…”

How Infants' Arousal Influences Their Visual Search

“…It should also be noted that the pop‐out effect was stronger for facial information than for color deviants. There is an ongoing debate about the visual characteristics of stimuli that elicit preferential orienting to social stimuli in infants (e.g., Farroni et al., ; Johnson, Senju & Tomalski, 2015; Viola Macchi, Turati, & Simion, ; Wilkinson, Paikan, Gredebäck, Rea, & Metta, ). Our results contribute to this literature by showing that eyes can elicit preferential visual orienting even when presented in isolation.…”

Gaze following in 4.5‐ and 6‐month‐old infants: The impact of proximity on standard gaze following performance tests

“…Given an infant's innate sensitivity to stimuli with eye‐like features (Batki, Baron‐Cohen, Wheelwright, Connellan, & Ahluwalia, ; Farroni, Csibra, Simion, & Johnson, ; Farroni et al., ; Wilkinson, Paikan, Gredebäck, Rea, & Metta, ), we expect eyes to be the most relevant point of fixation on a face (Oakes & Ellis, ; Tenenbaum et al., ), and thus, the starting point from which GF occurs. Disengagement from the eyes may also be more likely when the actors gaze is averted as it is a less salient stimuli (Hood, Willen, & Driver, ).…”