Face perception Flashcards
define sensation
info about environment picked up by sensory receptors and transmitted to brain
define perception
How we understand the events, objects and people in our environment
explain the development of visual acuity
Poor at birth, rapid increase in first 6 months
Near adult levels by 1
explain visual scanning younger than 2 months
cannot smoothly track objects
explain visual scanning at 1 month
focus on limited features of shape
explain visual scanning at 2 months
begin to focus of internal features
colour vision in newborns
between white and red
colour vision in 1 month olds
longer at brighter, bold colours
when is colour vision close to adult level
4 months
explain a preference test
- Two stimuli presented
- Measure how long infant looks at each
If preference, discrimination between two
explain a habituation task
Show interesting stimulus repeatedly - infant loses interest eventually
- Shown new stimulus
If new interest shown, infant can tell the difference
how is conditioning used to measure face perception
Repeatedly reward target behaviour
Infant becomes habituated to stimulus
Stimulus is altered
what can we infer from faces
- Species
- Sex
- Race
- Identity
- Mood
Truthfulness
what did Fanz find about innatev face preference
infants aged 1-15 week olds preferred looking at complex patterns
what did Maura and Barrera find about innate face preference
1 month - no difference in looking times
2 months - looked longer at natural face
how did Goren test innate face preference
used moving stimuli instead of static stimuli
what did Goren find about innate face preference
newborns tracked schematic face over other two
what did Johnson find about innate face preference
by 3 months, infants no longer tracked the face more
what do Johnson’s findings suggest about innate face preference
a 2 process model - `CONSPEC AND CONLERN
what is the CONSPEC aspect of a two process model
early system biases infants to orient towards faces
what is the CONLERN aspect of the two process model
later taken over by mature system and more precise recognition (no longer interested in plain face shapes)
what are the known newborn abilities of face perception
- Recognize identity of novel individuals
- Recognise eye gaze
- Recognise expressions
- Prefer attractive face
-Discriminate mother’s face
what did Pascalis find in his research about faces and what does this suggest
Preference for mothers face disappeared when outside of face and hairline masked - use outer features to identify
what did Sugita find about innate face preference
Monkeys not exposed to faces for first months of life and still preferred them
what are Sugita’s finding an indication of
innate face preference
what does narrowing of a perceptual window refer to
as we get older face perception skills become more specialised
what did Pascalis find in relation to perceptual windows
6month could discriminate between monkey faces and human faces
9month infants and adults could only discriminate between human faces
what is the other race effect
Adults are poorer at discriminating faces of other races compared to own race
how is there evidence of social experience in facial perception
most individuals better at discriminating female faces - effect of exposure to primary caregivers
-those with father as primary caregiver - tend to have a preference for male faces
how may institutions effect face perception
show deficits in identifying emotion in faces
how may abusive environments influence face perception
children raised in abusive environments showed bias for angry faces
how fast can adult recognise a familiar face
0.5 seconds
what is face specific perceptual development theory
Ongoing development of face-specific perception mechanisms continue to later child and adolescence due to increased exposure
what is general cognitive development theory
Face perception matures early - 4/5 years
Performance increases later as general cognitive mechanisms improve
Disproportionate inversion effect
perception is more accurate when faces are upright
what is hollistic processing
integration of info from all regions of the face
what may individuals with autism have difficulty with
-recognising familiar people
-remembering faces
-interpreting emotions
what happens to individuals with William’s syndrome
Process unfamiliar faces atypically
Prolonged face gaze
how does prosopagnosia develop
Damage or abnormalities in right fusiform gyrus (stroke or brain injury)
congenital - from birth
what is prosopagnosia
individuals unable to recognise own face or others
