Relations among spontaneous preferences, familiarized preferences, and novelty effects: Measurements with forced-choice techniques

We here describe a discrete trial, forced-choice, combined spontaneous preference and novelty preference technique. In this technique, spontaneous preferences and familiarized (postfamiliarization) preferences are measured with the same stimulus pairs under closely parallel conditions. A variety of systematic stimulus variations were used in 16-week-old infants to explore the interrelations among spontaneous preferences, familiarized preferences, and familiarization (novelty) effects. Infants were exposed to pairs of 10 degrees red and blue disks of varying colorimetric purity generated on a video monitor. Pairs of disks were identified for which spontaneous preferences were balanced at about 50-50 or unbalanced at about 75-25, and the magnitudes of familiarized preferences were determined. When spontaneous preferences were balanced at 50-50, novelty effects increased with increasing chromatic separation between the 2 stimuli, showing the independence of these variables. When spontaneous preferences were unbalanced, novelty effects were asymmetrical, being large after familiarization to the spontaneously preferred stimulus, but small or nonexistent after familiarization to the spontaneously nonpreferred stimulus. The potential uses of combined spontaneous preference and novelty preference techniques are discussed.