Generalized Discrimination of Positive Facial Expressions by Seven- and Ten-Month-Old Infants |
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| Authors: | Pamela M Ludemann |
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| Institution: | NIH-NICHD, Bethesda, MD 20892. |
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| Abstract: | The ability of 7- and 10-month-old infants to generalize their discrimination of facial expressions lacking featural consistency was investigated in a series of 4 experiments. Infants were habituated to models posing either prototypically positive displays (e.g., happy expressions) or positive expression blends (e.g., mock surprise). They were then tested for their ability to recognize a positive expression on the face of a novel model and to discriminate positive and negative facial expressions. Only in Experiment 1, in which infants were familiarized to a mix of happy and surprised facial expressions, did 10-month-olds demonstrate generalized discrimination of positive affect. When positive blends or happy expressions alone served as familiarization stimuli, both 7- and 10-month-old infants failed to dishabituate to a change in affective tone. 7-month-olds, in particular, showed consistent recovery of looking to the introduction of novel models. The pattern of results suggests that it is not until sometime after 7 months of age that dependence on the presence of expression-specific features for affect recognition and discrimination diminishes. By 10 months of age, however, infants are beginning to recognize the affective similarity of familiar positive facial expressions. |
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