Infant monkeys' visual responses to drawings of normal and distorted faces.
Face-like patterns attract attention from both human and nonhuman primates. The present study explored the facial preferences in infant pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina). Twenty-five subjects looked at 20 paired drawings of adult conspecific monkey faces, and their looking time was recorded. The facial features in the drawings were arranged in positions ranging from a normal to a scrambled face. The subjects looked at the normal face more than expected by chance (P < .02), suggesting a preference, whereas the distorted faces were observed randomly. The normal face may have been preferred because the eyes were in a normal position within the facial outline.
Lutz
C K
CK
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle 98195, USA. corrine@u.washington.edu
Lockard
J S
JS
Gunderson
V M
VM
Grant
K S
KS
D000818:Animals; D005145:Face / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005149:Facial Expression; D008254:Macaca nemestrina / Q000523:psychology*; D014796:Visual Perception