Four-Month-Old Baby Oscar's Preferential-Looking Experiment
Understanding Baby Oscar's Preferential-Looking Experiment
Four-month-old baby Oscar is involved in a preferential-looking experiment where researchers are studying his visual preferences. In this experiment, Oscar is shown two photos - one featuring his mother's face and the other displaying a female stranger's face. These photos are displayed in various locations, and the researchers measure the amount of time Oscar spends looking at each photo.
The Research Findings
If Oscar demonstrates a consistent preference for his mother's face over the stranger's face, the researchers are likely to conclude that:
- Oscar can discriminate his mother's face from a stranger's face.
They would interpret Oscar's preference as an indication that he can differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar faces, recognizing his mother's face as a known and comforting presence.
What will researchers conclude if Oscar shows a reliable preference for his mother's face over the stranger's face? They will likely determine that he can differentiate his mother's face from a stranger's face and that is why he was choosing to look at her face more because it was recognizable.