Developmental change in infant categorization: the perception of correlations among facial features.
Previous studies indicated that the ability to detect correlations among attributes emerges between 7 and 10 months of age. In the present study, the generality of this developmental transition was examined. Using an infant-control habituation procedure, 48 7- and 10-month-old infants were tested for the perception of correlations among basic facial features. The developmental effects were replicated. Only the 10-month-old infants demonstrated their sensitivity to the pattern of correlation by generalizing to a novel face that preserved the experienced pattern of correlation, while showing increased attention to a face in which the pattern of correlation was violated. 7-month-old infants generalized to both test stimuli containing familiar features, regardless of the status of the correlation. Implications for face perception and the processing of categorical information are discussed.
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Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.
D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D014796:Visual Perception