Face processing in the first year of life

This study examined whether infants process faces analytically by processing facial features as independent parts or holistically by processing them as a configuration. According to the "Switch design" of Cohen and Cashon (2001), 110 four-, 110 six- and 105 eight-month-old infants were first habituated to two faces (a child face and an adult face) using looking time as the dependent variable. After habituation, the infants were tested with a familiar habituation face, a switch face where either the eyes or mouth of one of the habituation faces had been inserted into the other habituation face, or a new face. The results showed that 4-, 6-, and 8-month-old infants processed the faces analytically when the eyes were switched. However, when the mouth was switched, 8-month-old infants processed the faces holistically whereas only a few of the 4- and 6-month-old infants processed the faces analytically or they were unable to perceive the change of mouth. Thus, the face processing mode in the first year of life is dependent on age and the feature varied.