Visual discrimination in the human newborn.

Abstract

Fixation preferences of human newborns were measured for stimuli varying independently in brightness and complexity. In the brightness experiment (N = 20), the order of preference was intermediate, bright, dim. In the complexity experiment (N = 16), the least complex stimulus was preferred over the most complex. A number of characteristics of Ss were found to be unrelated to the pattern of individual complexity preferences. Incidental findings indicate that human newborns are able to maintain conjugate fixations and demonstrate conjugate eye movements.