Infants' Recognition of Invariant Features of Faces

Abstract

FAGAN, JOSEPH F., III. Infants' Recognition of Invariant Features of Faces. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 627-638. A series of 5 experiments explored the 7-month infant's ability to discriminate among photos of faces. The infant's tendency to choose novel visual targets for inspection provides evidence of discrimination and recognition. 2 initial experiments demonstrated the infants' ability to discriminate among photos of adult male faces and among poses of the same man's face. In the third, fourth, and fifth experiments, some variant of a face that had been previously exposed served as the target on recognition testing. The aim was to see if the infant was capable of identifying the variant of the previously seen face. 3 examples of this ability to detect features common to,2 instances of faces were demonstrated: Features common to different poses of a man's face were recognized; infants responded to invariance in pose; and infants identified a face as familiar on recognition testing when another instance of that same-sex face had been presented for initial examination. Providing multiple instances of the same-sex face prior to recognition testing facilitated the latter identification task.