Biology and Cognitive Development: The Case of Face Recognition

In this book, the authors attempt to show how a cognitive account of development can be derived from a biological basis, using the example of the development of face recognition. While some research has indicated that newborn infants possess information about the general characteristics of faces, teh majority of studies indicate that infants may take several months before they respond selectively to faces. Mark Johnson and John Marton examine the results of their own replication and extension of both sets of findings.

Biology and Cognitive Development offers an important new theory of the development of face recognition and what it can tell us about the interaction between nature and nurture.

Mark Johnson obtained his degree in Psychology from Edinburgh University and his PhD from the Zoology Department at Cambridge Development Unit, before recently taking up an appointment as Associate Professo of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University.

John Morton came to London in 1985 to head the new MRC Cognitive DEvelopment Unit. In addition to his work on infant face recognition, he also works on child witnesses and reading acquisition. He is also a regular contributor to All in the Mind on Radio 4.

"Johnson and Morton have written a fascinating and important book. They have integrated findings from ethology, neuroscience, and experimental studies of human infants into a bold account of the early development of face perception. The implications of this landmark work go way beyond the story of the origins of face perception, per se. This book should become the standard work of an emerging new field of scientific endeavour – developmental cognitive neuroscience." Professor Susan Carey, Massachusetts Institute of Technology