Feature

Faces of Perception

It's tough to explain how people so easily tell one face from another

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Newborn babies are wrinkled, wide-eyed strangers in a strange land of light, shadow, and color. Nonetheless, these little bundles of visual innocence take an immediate shine to faces.

Participants in one set of visual-discrimination studies learn to discern differences among imaginary creatures called greebles, shown here in versions designated as male (above) and female (below) by researchers.