Abstract
The perceptual behavior of 8-, 9-, and 10-week-old infants as a function of different stimulus forms, individuality, and activation level was observed by means of a time-sampling rating method. The proportion of variance accounted for by differences between stimuli is found to increase with age; at the same time the effect of autonomic activation processes is decreasing. At 10 weeks but not at 8 weeks of age, circular forms elicit a relaxed approaching tendency, in contrast to a tense aversion, which is elicited by irregularly-shaped forms.
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This investigation is a contribution to the Bernese Longitudinal Studies in Personality Development. It was conducted at the Psychological Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland. The author wishes to express his indebtedness to Richard Meili. Thanks are due to Leonard J. Goldsmith for assistance in style. For a detailed exposition of theory, method, results and discussion of further problems, among them the relationship between the present method and the method of preferred fixation customary in infant perception research, the reader is referred to Lang (1966).
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Lang, A. Perceptual behavior of 8- to 10-week-old human infants. Psychon Sci 4, 203–204 (1966). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03342250
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03342250