Some investigators have suggested that young infants show a preference for familiar stimuli, which is supplanted by a preference for novel stimuli as they get older and the act of recognition becomes commonplace. We have carried out two studies that fail to support this developmental view but suggest instead that shifts in preference reflect phases in information processing that occur within a given age; it is only the speed of processing that changes across ages. In the first study, infants aged 3'/2, 4 ! /a, and 6'/2 months were tested for visual recognition memory of shapes, using the paired comparison procedure. Each problem consisted of a familiarization period followed by a test during which the familiar and novel member of the pair were both presented. The 3'/4-month-olds showed a strong preference for the familiar; the 416-, and especially the 6'/£-month-olds, showed a preference for the novel. In the second study, however, these shifts were found to depend more on familiarization time than on age. Here, infants aged 3 l /2 months were allowed either 5, 10, 15, 20, or 30 sec of familiarization; those aged 6'/a months were allowed either 5, 10, or 15 sec. Infants of both ages showed a preference for the familiar stimulus after limited exposure to it (10 and 5 sec, respectively); this preference shifted to a preference for the novel stimulus after more extended exposure (30 and 15 sec, respectively). It would appear that, regardless of age, infants prefer to look at that which is familiar as they begin to process a stimulus; once processing becomes more advanced, their preference shifts to the novel.

No abstract