Development of face perception

Question 1

What does the evolutionary perspective say about how our ability to recognise faces emerges?

Answer 1

We have an innate template of human faces that predisposes us to good face perception

Question 2

What does the experimental perspective say about how our ability to recognise faces emerges?

Answer 2

We learn to see faces as faces

Question 3

In terms of face tracking, what features/aspects do infants prefer to look at/attend to?

Answer 3

• high contrast patterns
• moderate complexity images
• regular/symmetrical shapes

Question 4

Fantz (1961) showed 4 day-old - 6 month-old infants a face, scrambled face and a simple stimulus with the same amount of light and dark. What did they find?

Answer 4

Even 4 day-olds preferred looking at the face stimulus

Question 5

Who found that newborns preferred to look at schematic faces over scrambled faces?

Answer 5

Johnson et al. (1991)

Question 6

How is Johnson and Morton’s (1991) study different to Johnson et al. (1991) (face tracking)?

Answer 6

Johnson and Morton (1991) used moving faces/stimuli
- they found that newborns tracked faces for longer

[both used newborns]

Question 7

At what age did Maurer and Barrera (1981) find that infants spent more time looking at faces?

Answer 7

2 months-old (but not 1 month)

- suggests that the preference for faces is a learnt behaviour that starts developing at 1 month-old

Question 8

Johnson and Morton (1991) found that 1 month-olds looked at faces for longer than non-face stimuli, but ___ month-olds did not look longer at either.

Answer 8

3/5 month-olds

Question 9

When do infants start looking longer at static faces vs. static non-faces?

Answer 9

After 2 months-old

Question 10

When do infants start tracking moving faces for longer than moving non-faces?

Answer 10

Before 3 months-old but not after

Question 11

Which mechanisms mediate face processing?

Answer 11

1. CONSPEC

2. CONLERN

Question 12

What is CONSPEC?

Answer 12

• an innate mechanism that drives our attention towards faces
• mediates tracking
• ‘trains up’ CONLERN
• ensures that facial input is maximised during the first 2 months before CONLERN comes ‘online’

Question 13

When is CONSPEC ‘turned off’?

Answer 13

1 month-old

Question 14

What is CONLERN?

Answer 14

• mediates looking to static faces

- develops through learning

Question 15

When is CONLERN activated?

Answer 15

2 months-old

Question 16

Who proposed CONSPEC and CONLERN?

Answer 16

Morton and Johnson (1991)

Question 17

How/why does CONLERN develop?

Answer 17

As a result of the cortex’s exposure to faces (ensured by CONSPEC)

Question 18

What did Valenza et al. (1996) conclude about CONSPEC and static/moving faces?

Answer 18

Infants still preferred to look at schematic faces when static (vs. moving)
- suggests that movement is not required to activate CONSPEC

Question 19

The limited functionality of CONSPEC renders it unable to account for which face abilities in newborns?

Answer 19

• preference for mother’s face vs. stranger’s face
• preference for attractive faces
• preference for a female adult face with eyes open vs. eyes closed
• preference for a face with a direct gaze vs. averted gaze

Question 20

We should only build representations for stimuli that we encounter, and should demonstrate superior processing of these stimuli.
What can we conclude about CONLERN from this?

Answer 20

CONLERN is experience-driven

Question 21

Which researchers had 6 month-olds, 9 month-olds and adults compare familiar and novel human and monkey faces?

Answer 21

Pascalis et al. (2002)

Question 22

What did Pascalis et al. (2002) find?

Answer 22

• 6 month-olds could discriminate between familiar and novel monkey and human faces (looked longer at novel)
• 9 month-olds could discriminate better between familiar and novel human faces than monkey faces
• adults spent longer looking at novel human faces but couldn’t distinguish between novel and familiar monkey faces

Question 23

Which researchers investigated the other-race effect in native French children?

Answer 23

Sangrigoli and deSchonon (2004)

Question 24

In Sangrigoli and deSchonon’s (2004) study, were 3-5 year-olds better at distinguishing between faces of their own native French race or between Asian faces?

Answer 24

Faces of their own race

Question 25

What is the other-race effect?

Answer 25

• we are better able to distinguish faces of people from our own native race than others races
• adults are more susceptible to recognition errors when the target face is from an unfamiliar race rather than their own race

Question 26

Sangrigoli et al. (2005) investigated whether the other-race effect is modifiable by novel experiences that occur after age 3. What groups of children did they compare?

Answer 26

1. Caucasian children who had lived in France since birth
2. Native Korean children who had been bought up in Korea but lived in France
3. Korean children who had been adopted by French-Caucasian families as children

Question 27

Sangrigoli et al. (2005) investigated whether the other-race effect is modifiable by novel experiences that occur after age 3. What did they do in their study?

Answer 27

Sangrigoli et al. (2005) showed children photos of Caucasian and Japanese faces, then had them identify which they had seen before from a pair

Question 28

What did Sangrigoli et al. (2005) find?

Answer 28

• adoptees and Caucasians were more accurate with Caucasian faces
• Koreans were more accurate with Asian faces

Question 29

What did Sangrigoli et al. (2005) conclude from their other-race study?

Answer 29

• the effect of early visual experience may be erased as a result of immersion in a novel face environment (i.e. the other-race effect is reversible)
• this study supports the experiential nature (learning through experience) of the other-race effect

Question 30

Until what age did Sangrigoli et al. (2005) find environmental inputs can influence the development of face-processing?

Answer 30

Until at least 9 years-old

Question 31

Newborns move their eyes and heads to follow moving stimuli. They are more responsive to a proper face pattern than a scrambled face/blank stimuli. The researchers concluded that visual discriminations are made at an early age, i.e. organised visual perception is unlearned. Who found this?

Answer 31

Goren, Sarty and Wu (1975)

Question 32

Who found that the same brain areas (activated when looking at faces) are activated when car experts observed cars and bird experts observed birds?

Answer 32

Gauthier et al. (2000)

Question 33

Which area of the brain is activated when looking at pictures of faces and the individual’s expert area?

Answer 33

Fusiform gyrus (FFA)

Question 34

What did Diamond and Carey (1986) show about dog and bird breeders?

Answer 34

They found similar recognition patterns with dogs and birds as humans

Question 35

What is the effect called when a person’s brain activates to their expert area in the same way as it does to faces?

Answer 35

Expertise effect

Question 36

What does the expertise effect suggest about CONLERN?

Answer 36

The FFA may learn perceptual representations of any stimuli, not just faces