title: Newborns' preference for faces: what is crucial?
abstract: Three experiments investigated whether the presence of more elements in the upper part of a configuration (i.e., up-down asymmetry) plays a role in determining newborns' preference for facelike patterns. Newborns preferred a nonfacelike stimulus with more elements in the upper part over a nonfacelike stimulus with more elements in the lower part (Experiment 1), did not show a preference for a facelike stimulus over a nonfacelike configuration equated for the number of elements in the upper part of the configuration (Experiment 2), and preferred a nonfacelike configuration located in the upper portion of the stimulus over a facelike configuration in the lower portion of the pattern (Experiment 3). Results demonstrated that up-down asymmetry is crucial in determining newborns' face preference.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Turati
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Simion
authors.forename: Idanna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Milani
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Umiltà
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010469:Perceptual Distortion