Techniques of looking at faces

Techniques of looking at faces

How do babies look at faces?

When adults look at other people’s faces, we look mostly at the eyes. We perceive that person’s characteristics by also looking at other parts of their faces as needed. In this study, we examined which part of the face babies look at, and in what order—and whether this changes with their development.

These results may seem slightly surprising, but younger babies look at different spots on the face. As they grow older, the order in which their gaze concentrates on the eyes, nose, and mouth becomes set. (Presumably, they start to look in the order of locations that contain the most important information.)

Compared to beginners and novices, chess masters and experienced airplane pilots perceive their current situation by simply shifting their glance from section to another. Perhaps the development of facial perception is similar to this observation