Infants' perception of natural and distorted arrangements of a schematic face.

The techniques of visual preference and of habituation were used to test the ability of 1- and 2-month-olds to discriminate various arrangements of the features of the human face. We showed infants schematic drawings of a human face with the features (1) arranged naturally, (2) arranged symmetrically but scrambled, and (3) arranged asymmetrically and scrambled. 2-month-olds discriminated among all 3 arrangements; 1-month-olds appeared not to discriminate between any of them 2-month-olds also showed a preference for a natural arrangement of the features, but 1-month-olds did not. Thus, by 2 months infants may recognize how the features of a natural human face are arranged and generalize that knowledge to schematic faces.