Self-propelled motion is a powerful cue that conveys information that an object is animate. In this case, animate refers to an entity's capacity to initiate motion without an applied external force. Sensitivity to this motion cue is present in infants that are a few months old, but whether this sensitivity is experience-dependent or is already…

In human newborns, spontaneous visual preference for biological motion is reported to occur at birth, but the factors underpinning this preference are still in debate. Using a standard visual preferential looking paradigm, 4 experiments were carried out in 3-day-old human newborns to assess the influence of translational displacement on perception…

In contrast with controls and newborn presented with static models, only newborn presented with dynamic models reproduced the models' actions at significant levels. Infants in the static condition fixated the experimenter longer than those in the dynamic one. Results are discussed in terms of neurophysiological findings concerning the control of…