Bimodal familiarization re-sensitizes 12-month-old infants to other-race faces
- Perceptual narrowing in the domain of face perception typically begins to reduce infants' sensitivity to differences distinguishing other-race faces from approximately 6 months of age. The present study investigated whether it is possible to re-sensitize Caucasian 12-month-old infants to other-race Asian faces through statistical learning by familiarizing them with different statistical distributions of these faces. The familiarization faces were created by generating a morphed continuum from one Asian face identity to another. In the unimodal condition, infants were familiarized with a frequency distribution wherein they saw the midpoint face of the morphed continuum the most frequently. In the bimodal condition, infants were familiarized with a frequency distribution wherein they saw faces closer to the endpoints of the morphed continuum the most frequently. After familiarization, infants were tested on their discrimination of the two original Asian faces. The infants' looking times during the test indicated that infants in thePerceptual narrowing in the domain of face perception typically begins to reduce infants' sensitivity to differences distinguishing other-race faces from approximately 6 months of age. The present study investigated whether it is possible to re-sensitize Caucasian 12-month-old infants to other-race Asian faces through statistical learning by familiarizing them with different statistical distributions of these faces. The familiarization faces were created by generating a morphed continuum from one Asian face identity to another. In the unimodal condition, infants were familiarized with a frequency distribution wherein they saw the midpoint face of the morphed continuum the most frequently. In the bimodal condition, infants were familiarized with a frequency distribution wherein they saw faces closer to the endpoints of the morphed continuum the most frequently. After familiarization, infants were tested on their discrimination of the two original Asian faces. The infants' looking times during the test indicated that infants in the bimodal condition could discriminate between the two faces, while infants in the unimodal condition could not. These findings therefore suggest that 12-month-old Caucasian infants could be re-sensitized to Asian faces by familiarizing them with a bimodal frequency distribution of such faces.…
Author details: | Anna KrasotkinaORCiDGND, Antonia GötzORCiDGND, Barbara HöhleORCiDGND, Gudrun SchwarzerGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101502 |
ISSN: | 0163-6383 |
ISSN: | 1879-0453 |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33227544 |
Title of parent work (English): | Infant behavior & development : an international and interdisciplinary journal |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Place of publishing: | Amsterdam |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2021/02/01 |
Publication year: | 2021 |
Release date: | 2023/04/21 |
Tag: | Bimodal; Face; Familiarization; Infant; Statistical learning; Unimodal; discrimination |
Volume: | 62 |
Article number: | 101502 |
Number of pages: | 8 |
Funding institution: | German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)German Research Foundation (DFG) [Forschungsgruppe 2253] |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Linguistik |
DDC classification: | 1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie |
Peer review: | Referiert |