The newborn can see the difference between various shapes and

patterns from birth. He prefers patterns for dull or bright solid colors 【M1】_________

and looks longer at stripes and angles than at circular patterns. Within

three weeks, however, his preference shifts dramatic to the human 【M2】_________

face.

Why should a baby with so little visual experience attend more to

human face than to any other kind of patterns? Some scientists think this 【M3】_________

preference represents a built-in advantage for the human species. The

object in prime importance to the physically helpless infant is a human 【M4】_________

being. Babies seem to have a natural tendency to the human face as

potentially awarding. Researchers also point out that the newborn wisely 【M5】_________

relies more on patterns than on outline, size, or color. Patterns remain

stable and outline changes with point of view; size, with distance from 【M6】_________

an object; and brightness and color, with lighting.

Mothers have always claimed that they could see their newborns

looking at them as they held them, despite what they have told. The 【M7】_________

experts who thought that perception had to await physical development

and the consequence of action were wrong for several reasons. Earlier

research techniques were less sophisticated than what they are today. 【M8】_________

Physical skills were once used to indicate perception of objects—skills

like visual tracking and reaching for an object, both of them the 【M9】_________

newborn does poorly. Then, too, assumptions that the newborn’s eyes

and brain was too immature for anything as sophisticated as pattern 【M10】________

recognition caused opposing data to be thrown away. Since perception of

forms was widely believed to follow perception of more “basic” qualities

such as color and brightness, the possibility of its presence from birth

was rejected.

【M4】