What fascinated the chimps the most among the various items / objects that were placed within their immediate proximity? The infants seem to gravitate visually to the most complex forms. For example, they stared at a bull's eye, a checkerboard and items with stripes; and these items were "preferred" no matter how many weeks old the chimp was. So that settled (it seemed) the issue of whether or not an infant has form perception at birth -- infants do indeed have that ability, the study indicated.
Unlike the chicks' ability to perceive form -- which they do instinctively because their DNA informs them that they need food, nourishment -- human infants have to depend on other humans to care for them. So the Fantz team of researchers -- to take the case deeper into understanding -- presented a total of 49 human infants with three "identical sized" oval disks (p. 39). The infants were between 4 days and 6 months. One of the ovals had the features of a human face, another had those features jumbled up...
To no one's surprise, the human babies stared "intently" for long periods of time at the oval with the human face on it -- and regardless of age, all the infants focused most on the face oval.
As a final test, the researchers presented the infants with six disks; a human face; a bull's eye; a "random fragment" from a newspaper article; entirely red disk; entirely fluorescent yellow; and plain white. The results, as expected, showed the infants stared far longer at the face than any of the other disks. The article claims that these exercises "significantly changed psychology for two reasons" (p. 40). One, the discoveries were groundbreaking; and two, the methods used were entirely innovative and unique. The author claims that these research discoveries influenced several fields of developmental and cognitive psychology.
Works Cited
Franz, RL. "The Origin of Form Perception."…
