The Development Of Facial Perception - 2429 Words

This literature review will examine three studies on the development of facial perception in infants. There is a large body of research already dedicated to this topic, maintaining this first year of life as an integral stage in perceptual development (Oakes Ellis, 2013). Facial perception is of particular is important because of its pervasive social implications (Bahrick, Lickliter, Castellanos, 2013). Greater understanding of perceptual ability may offer insights in to how infants interact with and learn about the social world (Oakes Ellis, 2013). The articles will appear is this order; An Eye-Tracking Investigation of Developmental Changes in Infant’s Exploration of Inverted Human Faces by Oakes and Ellis (2013), Where and How†¦show more content†¦Oakes and Ellis’s use of inverted faces, and detailed data collection render their findings a valuable contribution in the field of infant developmental perception. Furthermore, the significance of their line of enquiry is that visual exploration styles can be linked to predicting learning (Amso et al., 2010). They assert that little is known about how infants process faces, and postulate that perceptual development in infants will be reflected in patterns of visual ï ¿ ¼FACIAL PERCEPTION DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY !3 investigation, that vary across development (Oakes Ellis, 2013, p. 135). Contrasting the scanning patterns of upright versus inverted faces, they determined whether development reflects face processing in general, independent of orientation. Understanding the methodology used is key to evaluating Oakes and Ellis’s findings. They employed eye tracking to examine the eye movements of 4.5 to 12.5 month old infants (N = 92) during 3 second presentations of upright and inverted faces. On the basis of previous research, 4.5 months was selected as youngest age to be tested. They anticipated early scanning patterns may be stable at 4.5 months due to changes in the visual system and cortical processing regions, potentially resulting in no change between 4.5 and 12 months. Conversely, it is known significant changes occur in the first year because of perceptual narrowing or a shift to configural processes (Oakes