From a Baby’s Point of View: How Infants’ Face Diets Shape Their Face Perception

Abstract

Individual variations in face-perception expertise become apparent by the second year of life. We propose that infants’ “face diet”—the nature and quantity of their visual interactions with faces—provides a useful lens for understanding how individual differences in face perception arise. In this article, we discuss how the diversity of an infant’s face diet and their interactions with caregivers shape their face-perception and social-learning skills, how a masked face diet may influence infants’ face perception, and how neurodiversity may affect infants’ face diets and learning about faces. These components underscore how face perception develops through both shared and individual pathways, with implications for identifying early-emerging challenges and designing supportive interventions. Future research opportunities include incorporating diverse contexts, improving measurement tools, and examining developmental periods beyond infancy.