CONVERGENCE IN HUMAN NEWBORN

The tendency of the eyes of human newborns to converge was studied in three stimulus situations. Photographs were taken of 28 Ss'' [Subject''s] eyes when they were presented with 2 sets of paired stimuli and with a single centrally placed stimulus. To a large extent Ss'' eyes did not converge upon the same stimulus. There was a significantly greater tendency to converge when Ss looked at a stripes vs. gray stimulus pair than when they looked at paired color-brightness stimuli or a single center stimulus. The within-subject standard deviation in the distance between pupil centers was significantly greater for the stripes vs. gray stimulus pair than for the color-brightness stimuli or for the center stimulus. The results suggest that unaided human judgments of newborn ocular orientation may not reliably indicate stimulus discrimination and preference in newborn infants.