ABSTRACT

It has been said that ‘the brain thrives on patterns’ (Lucas 2001: 18).This is because we identify patterns wherever we can in order to make sense of the world.Where we cannot find a pattern we create a best-fit pattern, a set of rules or an ordering process that makes events manageable. We are born pattern-seekers, emerging from the womb at birth looking for patterns in faces. Having identified faces at birth, babies will imitate what they see – they will smile in response to a smile, poke out their tongues in response to seeing someone else do that. At birth, babies begin to make social contact and it is their interest in the pattern that makes up the human face that drives that contact.This interest continues throughout life but we remain good at recognising faces, which we do through a speedy process of pattern-recognition.