cognitive development of face processing

Question 1

faces may tell us…

Answer 1

-gender
-mood
-age
-ethnicity
-attractiveness
-identity

Question 2

why do we need to identify others

Answer 2

humans are primates - most primates live in social groups
the existence of large social groups requires the identification of individuals and assigning them a social status
thus it is important for us to be able to reliably categorise and individuate people we encounter

Question 3

why are faces important

Answer 3

faces are the vehicles of important information such as gender, expression, etc
face recognition and classification is an important mechanism for survival
- for us to recognise individuals
-assess group status
-judge fertility

Question 4

cross species face recognition

Answer 4

similarities exist in the face processing systems of different species
e.g. many primate species preferentially orient towards faces of their own species
it might reflect a common origin selected by evolution (for specialised face processing mechanisms)

Question 5

theoretical accounts of face recognition - bruce and young model 1986

Answer 5

bruce and young model (1986)
recognition is facilitated by the development of person identity nodes (PINs) which are composed of face recognition units (FRUs)

Question 6

theoretical accounts of face recognition - average faces

Answer 6

identification of familiar faces is achieved through the activation of stable ‘average’ representations
e.g. loads of different contexts of the same face (happy, sad, angry, sideways, looking away, etc) are all combined and the ‘average’ of all these faces is what is activated for us to identify the person

Question 7

cortical basis of face recognition

Answer 7

face fusiform area in the brain is activated more by faces than other visual objects

lesioning this area causes face blindness (prosopagnosia)
this is an inability to recognise other humans by their face

Question 8

early face processing system

Answer 8

preference for face schema at birth

study with normal face, scrambled face, blank

Question 9

why do we need to use computational saliency models

Answer 9

traditional methods of testing face detection often use highly controlled stimuli, however the real world is more visually complex and noisy - thus to study face detection more realistically, we need to understand how visual salience operates in natural scenes

Question 10

computational saliency models

Answer 10

visual saliency models computationally predict which parts of an image most likely to attract attention. they factor in:
-low level features: colour contrast, luminence, orientation, motion
-high level cues: faces, text, gaze, symmetry or scene context

computational: assesses visual properties of images using saliency analysis

Question 11

two process theory of face processing (morton and johnson 1991)

Answer 11

face perception develops through the interaction of two systems: subcortical (CONSPEC) and cortical system (CONLERN)
subcortical - detects face and guides visual attention towards relevant stimuli
this encourages the development of the cortical system
cortical - gradually learns to process and recognise individuals faces through experience

Question 12

subcortical system CONLERN

Answer 12

present from birth, responsible for detecting face-like stimuli, not to do with experience

Question 13

cortical system CONSPEC

Answer 13

develops through learning and experience, allowing for fine-tuned discrimination of individual faces

Question 14

what is the subcortical system called

Answer 14

CONLERN

Question 15

what is the cortical system called

Answer 15

CONSPEC

Question 16

what are the two systems of morton and johnson (1991)’s two process theory of face processing called

Answer 16

subcortical system CONLERN and cortical system CONSPEC

Question 17

who is the two process theory of face processing by

Answer 17

morton and johnson 1991

Question 18

is eye contact needed for face detection

Answer 18

two process theory suggests that eye contact might be critical for face detection

research studied 2, 4 and 6 month olds longitudinally
detection was superior when faces had eye contact, but they used visual arrays

other findings suggest that eye contact is not necessary

it might be a question of stimuli and methods

Question 19

face processing in infancy

Answer 19

early in life infants are able to recognise individual primate faces
this reflects the plasticity of infant face processing
this ability declines between 6-9 months of age unless artificial exposure is provided