... Piaget believed that the capacity for perception is innate, though perceptual skills are based on learning. He believed that perception does not develop, but is enhanced by intelligence. Ecological theorists such as Gibson (1969, as cited in Keenan, 2002) argue that we perceive information directly in an active cognitive process in which we interact with affordances of the environment. Previous experience provides expectations which govern behaviour. The infant is pre-wired to capture perceptual information and perception serves an adaptive function. Face processing involves, according to Sergent (1989, as cited in Simion, Valenza & Umilta, 1998), face detection, discrimination and recognition. Face detection is the process of identifying a stimulus as a face and implies capacities to detect defining characteristics of a face. Some researchers, for example Bruce and Young (1986), have argued faces are processed separately and differently to other stimuli. This suggests an innate preference for the face. ...

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