title: Preference for facial averageness: Evidence for a common mechanism in human and macaque infants.
abstract: Human adults and infants show a preference for average faces, which could stem from a general processing mechanism and may be shared among primates. However, little is known about preference for facial averageness in monkeys. We used a comparative developmental approach and eye-tracking methodology to assess visual attention in human and macaque infants to faces naturally varying in their distance from a prototypical face. In Experiment 1, we examined the preference for faces relatively close to or far from the prototype in 12-month-old human infants with human adult female faces. Infants preferred faces closer to the average than faces farther from it. In Experiment 2, we measured the looking time of 3-month-old rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) viewing macaque faces varying in their distance from the prototype. Like human infants, macaque infants looked longer to faces closer to the average. In Experiments 3 and 4, both species were presented with unfamiliar categories of faces (i.e., macaque infants tested with adult macaque faces; human infants and adults tested with infant macaque faces) and showed no prototype preferences, suggesting that the prototypicality effect is experience-dependent. Overall, the findings suggest a common processing mechanism across species, leading to averageness preferences in primates.
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, LPNC, France.|CNRS, LPNC,UMR 5105, France.
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Damon
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, LPNC, France.|CNRS, LPNC,UMR 5105, France.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Méary
authors.affiliation: University of Delaware, USA.
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.affiliation: University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: University of Miami, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, USA.
authors.forename: Annika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paukner
authors.affiliation: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Suomi
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, LPNC, France.|CNRS, LPNC,UMR 5105, France.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pascalis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014796:Visual Perception