Detection of contrast by the newborn and 2-month-old infant

We studied newborns' and 2-month-olds' sensitivity to contrast by taking advantage of their preference for patterned over unpatterned stimulation. Newborns looked longer at checkerboards in which the checks contrasted by 11%, by 17%, by 23%, and by 27% than at gray squares matched in luminance to the checkerboards, but showed no preference when tested with checks contrasting by 3% or by 5%. In addition, the magnitude of the preference increased …