Sugden, N. A. 1, 2 , Jayaraman, S. 1 & Smith, L. B. 1
1 Indiana University Bloomington, USA
2 Ryerson University, Canada
Infants evidence a preference for face types with which they have the most experience (e.g., mom's face, Bushnell, 2001; female faces, Quinn et al., 2002). Differential exposure lies at the root of perceptual narrowing (Scott, Pascalis, & Nelson, 2007) and shapes infants' ability with faces, including age-based face discrimination (Macchi Cassia et al., 2014). It is still an open question as to how exposure quantity and quality differ between frequently and infrequently experienced face types. To probe this, we utilized natural variation in infants' early face experience: the presence and absence of siblings. We hypothesized that child face exposure quantity, quality, and diversity would be superior in children with (siblings, n=23) as compared to without (singletons, n=20) siblings. Data was collected from 1-month to 2-year-old infants using head-mounted cameras at home (see Jayaraman, Fausey, & Smith, 2013; In press). Child face exposure was significantly lower in singletons (M=5.1%) than in siblings (M=32.0%). All save one sibling's and only 7 singletons' 'top 3' most frequent faces included a child. Better views of child faces (near, singly, frontal) were more frequent in siblings (M=16.5%, Mdn=16.2) than singletons (M=13.1%, Mdn=7.7). This suggests quantity and quality combine to offer unequal exposure profiles.