SPEED VS. THOROUGHNESS IN INFANT VISUAL INFORMATION-PROCESSING

The relation between speed and cognition is assuming an increasingly p rominent position in infant research. The current study examined the p otential trade-off between speed of processing, as measured by learnin g rate and the duration of individual looks, and thoroughness of proce ssing, as measured by the extraction of stimulus detail. Six and one-h alf month old infants learned to distinguish a familiar face from a se ries of faces with novel features and were then shown faces which prob ed their knowledge of the familiar features, in particular their abili ty to discern subtle changes in these features. Learning rate showed a clear relation to performance on the probe task, but duration of look s showed none. Infants who took longer to learn discriminated between faces with the familiar features and variants with only one or two nov el features, whereas those who learned quickly did not. The findings s uggest that, st least in some situations, infants who process informat ion slowly may actually extract more detail.