A study demonstrated newborns' ability to recognize their mother's scent by placing 1-week-old infants between two gauze pads: one from their mother's bra and one from a stranger's. Over two-thirds of the babies turned their heads toward the pad with their mother's scent, confirming their ability to make this distinction.

Gauze Pad Study on Scent Recognition

Analyze the following scenario and provide the most likely explanation for the infant's behavior, based on an understanding of newborn sensory abilities.

Explaining Newborn Behavior

Based on the typical sensory capabilities of a newborn, provide the most likely explanation for the infant's change in behavior described in the scenario below.

Newborn Comfort and Sensory Recognition

Newborns have a well-developed sense of smell that enables them to distinguish their own mother's unique scent from that of other people. This olfactory recognition is evident as early as one week after birth.

Google

A newborn's primary senses for interacting with the world include vision, hearing, and smell. These senses are at different stages of maturity at birth. For example, vision is considered the least developed sense, while hearing and smell are strong enough to show distinct preferences.

Classification of Newborn Senses by Development

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Despite vision being a newborn's least developed sense, infants demonstrate an innate preference for looking at human faces. This tendency is observable from just a few days after birth and is important for early social bonding.

Newborn Vision: Preference for Faces

Newborns show a distinct preference for human voices over non-speech sounds. Research indicates they will listen to voices for longer durations and have a specific preference for their mother's voice over that of a stranger.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After