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Human Development · Chapter 5

What Babies Prefer to Look At

Newborns can't tell us what they see — but they vote with their eyes. Robert Fantz built a "looking chamber": show a baby two pictures side by side and time the gaze. Whichever they stare at longer reveals what they can perceive and prefer. Tap a trial to run it.

The looking chamber

Preferential lookingtap a trial to run it
How the test works — Preferential looking: two images are shown at once and the seconds of gaze toward each are timed through a peephole. A longer look means the infant can tell them apart and prefers one. Left/right positions are swapped between babies so a simple side-bias can't fake a preference.