Abstract

The aim of this review is to present some theoretical issues concerning the recognition of faces in adults. In the light of these considerations, data concerning the preference for facelike patterns in newborns will be discussed. Taken together the reported data suggest that newborns possess a device that is specifically tuned to process structural information concerning the visual characteristics of the face, and that it displays some properties of the modular systems. In accord with Karmiloff-Smith (1991), it is assumed that neonates are pre-programmed to attend to some classes of relevant environmental input, and that these initial predispositions determine the entities on which subsequent learning processes will take place.