Cues for early social skills: direct gaze modulates newborns' recognition of talking faces

Previous studies showed that, from birth, speech and eye gaze are two importantcues in guiding early face processing and social cognition. These studies testedthe role of each cue independently; however, infants normally perceive speechand eye gaze together. Using a familiarization-test procedure, we firstfamiliarized newborn infants (n = 24) with videos ofunfamiliar talking faces with either direct gaze or averted gaze. Newborns werethen tested with photographs of the previously seen face and of a new one. Thenewborns looked longer at the face that previously talked to them, but only inthe direct gaze condition. These results highlight the importance of both speechand eye gaze as socio-communicative cues by which infants identify others. Theysuggest that gaze and infant-directed speech, experienced together, are powerfulcues for the development of early social skills.