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Fig. 10.3. Face preferences in young infants. In addition to newborns (Figure 10.2), Johnson and Morton (1991) also tested how infants at various postnatal ages up to 5 months respond to schematic patterns. They rotated the infant's chair toward the stimulus and measured the angle at which he or she first attended (or oriented) to it. Neither 3-month-old nor 5-month-old infants significantly preferred facelike schematic patterns (b,c,d and f,g,h) over the controls (a and e). Results at earlier ages were variable, depending on the testing method (e.g. whether the stimuli were presented in central or peripheral vision). These results suggest that early postnatal visual experience significantly shapes the infant face preferences. Replotted from Johnson and Morton (1991).