Infant Response to Facelike Patterns under Fixed-Trial and Infant-Control Procedures

• Published in: Child development Vol. 54; no. 1; pp. 172 - 177
• Main Authors: Haaf, Robert A., Smith, P. Hull, Smitley, Suzanne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States University of Chicago Press 01.02.1983; University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development, etc
• Subjects: Analysis of variance; Attention - physiology; Experimental procedures; Experimentation; Face; Fixation, Ocular; Form Perception - physiology; Humans; Infant; Infants; Mental stimulation; Neonatal screening; Observational research; Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology; Psychology, Child; Research Design - standards; Ulus; Visual perception
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.2307/1129874

10-week-old infants were shown 4 facelike patterns that differed along 2 dimensions: number of elements and the extent to which the elements were organized to resemble the human face. The purpose was to determine whether the stimulus dimension to which infants respond is different with fixed-trial than with infant-control methodologies. Each infant was tested under 1 of 3 experimental conditions: fixed trials (trials and intervals of fixed, predetermined durations), offset control (trial termination controlled by the behavior of the infant), or onset-offset control (trial initiation and termination both controlled by the infant's behavior). Although the relationship was linear with fixed trials and offset control but was curvilinear with onset-offset control, infants responded to number, rather than organization, of elements in all 3 conditions. Furthermore, no specific methodological advantages were demonstrated for infant-control procedures.