Farroni Teresa, Menon Enrica, Rigato Silvia, Johnson Mark H
University of Padua, Italy, and Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.
Eur J Dev Psychol. 2007 Mar;4(1):2-13. doi: 10.1080/17405620601046832. Epub 2007 May 3.
The ability of newborns to discriminate and respond to different emotional facial expressions remains controversial. We conducted three experiments in which we tested newborns' preferences, and their ability to discriminate between neutral, fearful, and happy facial expressions, using visual preference and habituation procedures. In the first two experiments, no evidence was found that newborns discriminate, or show a preference between, a fearful and a neutral face. In the third experiment, newborns looked significantly longer at a happy facial expression than a fearful one. We raise the possibility that this preference reflects experience acquired over the first few days of life. These results show that at least some expressions are discriminated and preferred in newborns only a few days old.
新生儿辨别不同情感面部表情并做出反应的能力仍存在争议。我们进行了三项实验，运用视觉偏好和习惯化程序测试新生儿的偏好，以及他们区分中性、恐惧和快乐面部表情的能力。在前两项实验中，没有发现新生儿能够区分或表现出对恐惧和中性面孔的偏好的证据。在第三项实验中，新生儿注视快乐面部表情的时间明显长于恐惧面部表情。我们提出这种偏好可能反映了出生后几天内获得的经验。这些结果表明，至少某些表情在出生仅几天的新生儿中是可以被区分和偏好的。
