Mother's face recognition in newborn infants: Learning and memory

Two studies are reported that address issues related to memory for faces in young infants. The first correlates the opportunity to view the mother's face with expressed visual preference for that face, and shows that very little exposure is required, with greater levels of exposure showing stronger preferences. The second study examines the role of delay between exposure to the mother's face and preference testing, finding that strength of preference is not significantly impacted by a 15-min delay. Implications for a model of face processing are discussed. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.