{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,8]],"date-time":"2026-07-08T21:25:57Z","timestamp":1783545957700,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":67,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,15]],"date-time":"2023-09-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1694736000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Research Council (ERC)","award":["695300-HKADeC-ERC-2015-AdG"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["695300-HKADeC-ERC-2015-AdG"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Symmetry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Symmetry has long been viewed as a feature of objects that facilitates ease of perception. Three experiments investigated 4- to 5-month-old infants\u2019 detection and processing of vertical symmetry, oblique symmetry, and asymmetry in novel patterns and faces. In Experiment 1, infants showed the fewest shifts in visual fixations to vertical symmetry in patterns and faces, supporting the view that vertical symmetry is processed more efficiently than oblique symmetry or asymmetry. In Experiment 2, stimulus presentation disallowed more than a single visual fixation, and infants looked longer at a face that is vertically symmetrical compared to obliquely symmetrical or asymmetrical, and they looked equally to patterns regardless of symmetry. In Experiment 3, where pattern exposures were prolonged and inverted faces viewed, infants discriminated vertical symmetry in patterns but lost the advantage with vertical symmetry in faces. Thus, symmetry in patterns requires more processing time from infants, and inverting the face costs infants the normal perceptual advantage of symmetry, even though components of the face remain symmetrical. These findings suggest that infants are prepared to exploit symmetry in their everyday perceptual worlds.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/sym15091767","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,17]],"date-time":"2023-09-17T06:36:45Z","timestamp":1694932605000},"page":"1767","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Vertical Symmetry Is Special to Infants; Vertical Symmetry in Upright Human Faces More So"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6810-8427","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marc H.","family":"Bornstein","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA"},{"name":"Institute for Fiscal Studies, London WC1E 7AE, UK"},{"name":"UNICEF, New York City, NY 10017, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8297-7004","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Clay","family":"Mash","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7089-4554","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martha E.","family":"Arterberry","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Colby College, Waterville, ME 04901, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9442-0254","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gianluca","family":"Esposito","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38100 Trento, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,9,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(1935). 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