How infants distinguish among faces

When I read about how infants distinguish among faces, I recall the date that my younger cousin came to this exciting world. I remember that most of my aunts rushed on to be the first to hold their niece in their arms. However, my cousin did not allow everyone to hold her. She showed her preference clearly, and she also made sure that we knew her rights of freedom—she cried out loud. Interestingly, no matter how terribly she cried, she could always find her peace when she returned back to her mom’s arms. It seems that my cousin already knew how to distinguish her mom from others at birth.

From the example of my cousin, I wonder why infants could distinguish their moms and others even though they have poor vision at birth. As we discussed in class, it is quite possible that infants distinguish their moms by hair. I remember that my cousin always grabbed her mom’s long hair during feeding time and sleeping time. I guess that my cousin tried to make sure that her mom was with her. Thus, I think that my long hair would be one of reasons that my cousin liked to be with me. My long hair probably made her felt that I was her mom, therefore, she was peaceful when I held her or fed her with a bottle of milk. Moreover, I noticed that my cousin also needed to grab my hair in order to fall asleep. So, I believe that an infant could distinguish faces by hair.

Nevertheless, what if infants’ mothers change their hair style, would infants also change their preference toward their mother’s faces? And would infants still distinguish their mother’s faces from others? I think that the answers really depend on how long a baby has known his/her mom. If an infant just knew her mom for a day, he/she might not recognize his/her mom after the hair style of his/her mom changes the next day. It is too difficult for an infant to recognize his or her mom’s face by the details of his/her mom's face at birth. So, when hair which is only clue for an infant to distinguish his/her mom disappeared, it is hard for him/her to recognize his/her mom. Rather, an infant might prefer someone who has similar hair style that his mom had before. On the other hand, if infants stay with their mom longer and are more familiar with their moms, they might be able to recognize their moms by other clues such as voice or scent of their moms. Thus, it is reasonable that an infant might distinguish their mom’s faces from their mom’s hair. Yet, if infants recognize their mom by hair, do infants also distinguish their fathers by hair? Personally, I think that it is more difficult for infants to distinguish their fathers by hair, because the hair styles of men are usually short and do not have much significant variance.

In the text book, the author also mentioned that infants prefer attractive faces more than unattractive faces because attractive faces fit a prototype of an average face. First of all, I actually doubt that an infant could judge the attractiveness of faces. From my experience, I understand that a 4-year-old child already knows the standards of the attractive faces. When I had practice teaching in kindergarten, I found out that 4-year-old children like to play with someone who is beautiful. In addition, one of my families works in a public kindergarten for more than 20 years. She told me that children would prefer a teacher if the teacher is young and pretty. However, a 4-year-old child might judge the attractiveness of faces based on the influence of media such as cartoon or fairy tales rather than their innate judgments. Furthermore, different cultures may have different judgments of the attractiveness of faces. It is worth to question about how infants understand the standards of the attractiveness in their cultures without exposing to their cultures long enough. Therefore, it is not convincing to conclude that the infants prefer attractive faces without considering culture influences. Indeed,a prototype of an average face might arouse infants survival instinct to prefer a face which looks more similar to theirs. Possibly, infants might prefer attractive faces because attractive European faces has more salient characteristics that are easier for infants to perceive.