18-Month-olds can perceive Mooney faces.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Infant Perception

Background:

• Facial information detection is crucial for infant development, even in suboptimal visual conditions.
• Mooney faces, a type of impoverished face image, are used to study face perception abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the developmental trajectory of facial information detection in infants.
• To examine infant perception of Mooney faces at different age groups (6, 12, and 18 months).

Main Methods:

• Infants were presented with upright and inverted Mooney faces.
• Preference for upright over inverted Mooney faces was measured to assess perception.

Main Results:

• Eighteen-month-old infants showed a significant preference for upright Mooney faces.
• Six- and 12-month-old infants did not demonstrate discrimination between upright and inverted Mooney faces.

Conclusions:

• Eighteen-month-olds possess the ability to perceive Mooney faces, indicating developing face processing skills.
• The ability to perceive impoverished facial information may emerge later in infancy, with further research needed for younger age groups.