In the eye and mind of the beholder: The effects of familiarisation on the perception of atypical infant facial configurations.

ABSTRACT: Perception of infant faces plays a crucial role in adult-infant caretaking behaviour, with adults being found to demonstrate a reliable attraction towards infant faces over other stimuli. When affected by a congenital facial malformation such as cleft lip and/or palate, however, adults' visual scanning patterns and subjective appraisal of these faces have been found to be adversely affected. Little past work has explored how an observer's prior experience with this specific malformation might play a role in the perception of cleft-affected infant faces. To this end, two groups of adult female participants were recruited and presented with 48 images of infant faces (24 typical, 24 cleft-affected) with one group subjected to novel, purpose-built familiarisation training, where participants w

SUBMITTER: Hunt BW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11556683 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature