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Fig. 10.2. Face preferences in newborns. Using the procedure from Figure 10.1, Johnson et al. (1991) measured responses of human newborns to a set of head-sized schematic patterns. The graph at left gives the result of a study conducted within 1 hour after birth; the one at right gives results from a separate study with newborns an average of 21 hours old. Each bar indicates how far the newborns tracked the image pictured below with their eyes on average. Because the procedures and conditions differed between the two studies, only the relative magnitudes should be compared. Overall, the study at left shows that newborns respond to facelike stimuli (a,b) more strongly than to simple control conditions (c); all comparisons were statistically significant. This result suggests that face processing is in some way genetically coded. In the study at right, the checkerboard pattern (d) was tracked significantly farther than the other stimuli, and pattern (g) was tracked significantly less far; no significant difference was found between the responses to (e) and (f ). The ovals are not as visible to the newborn as the square dots, and the checkerboard stimulates newborn's low-level visual system extremely well. These results suggest that simple three-dot patterns can invoke face preferences much like facelike patterns do, but low-level visual stimulation can also have a significant effect. Replotted from Johnson et al. (1991).