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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 17, 2026

A View of Their Own: Capturing the Egocentric View of Infants and Toddlers with Head-Mounted Cameras
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Pareidolia in infants.

Masaharu Kato1, Ryoko Mugitani1

  • 1Human Information Science Laboratory, NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan.

Plos One
|February 18, 2015
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Infants perceive illusory faces (pareidolia) by associating sounds with visual cues. This ability, linked to sound-mouth association, develops between 8 and 10 months of age.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Humans exhibit face pareidolia, the perception of faces in non-face objects.
  • This phenomenon is linked to the brain's innate face-processing abilities.
  • Sound-mouth association in infants is established by 6 months.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether infants perceive illusory faces (pareidolia).
  • To determine the developmental timeline of face pareidolia in infants.
  • To explore the role of sound association in infant face perception.

Main Methods:

  • Infants (8, 10, and 12 months) were presented with a four-blob image and pure tones.
  • Looking time at image components, particularly the 'mouth' area, was measured.
  • Behavioral responses to upright and inverted images were compared with and without sound.

Main Results:

  • 10- and 12-month-olds showed increased looking time at the 'mouth' blob with sound for upright images.
  • 8-month-olds did not exhibit this looking preference.
  • No significant differences were observed for inverted images.

Conclusions:

  • Infants develop the ability to perceive illusory faces through sound association between 8 and 10 months.
  • This suggests a developmental progression in integrating auditory and visual facial cues.
  • Face pareidolia in infants is influenced by both visual configuration and auditory input.