Biomaterial Database

The perception of facial expressions by the three-month-old. 1981

M E Barrera, and D Maurer

We used habituation to investigate 3-month-olds' abilities to discriminate and recognize smiling and frowning expressions posed by the mother or by a female stranger. Infants discriminated between the expressions and recognized which expression they had seen during the habituation trials; they did so whether the expressions were posed by the mother or by the stranger. However, when the expressions were posed by the mother, more infants showed the discrimination, and boys looked at her pictures longer than girls. These differences suggest that infants' previous experiences with faces influence their perceptions of the facial expressions.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D008297	Male		Males
D010364	Pattern Recognition, Visual	Mental process to visually perceive a critical number of facts (the pattern), such as characters, shapes, displays, or designs.	Recognition, Visual Pattern,Visual Pattern Recognition
D002666	Psychology, Child	Branch of psychology involving the study of normal and abnormal behavior of children.	Child Psychology,Infant Psychology,Pediatric Psychology,Psychology, Infant,Psychology, Pediatric
D004193	Discrimination Learning	Learning that is manifested in the ability to respond differentially to various stimuli.	Discriminative Learning,Discrimination Learnings,Discriminative Learnings,Learning, Discrimination,Learning, Discriminative
D005149	Facial Expression	Observable changes of expression in the face in response to emotional stimuli.	Face Expression,Expression, Face,Expression, Facial,Face Expressions,Facial Expressions
D005260	Female		Females
D005556	Form Perception	The sensory discrimination of a pattern, shape, or outline.	Contour Perception,Contour Perceptions,Form Perceptions,Perception, Contour,Perception, Form,Perceptions, Contour,Perceptions, Form
D006185	Habituation, Psychophysiologic	The disappearance of responsiveness to a repeated stimulation. It does not include drug habituation.	Habituation (Psychophysiology),Habituation, Psychophysiological,Psychophysiologic Habituation,Psychophysiological Habituation,Habituations (Psychophysiology)
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man