Face recognition Flashcards
Describe the development of face recognition Explain perceptual narrowing and its role in face processing Discuss whether face processing is primarily influenced by nature or nurture
Autobiographical memory
The memory we have for our own lives, things which have happened to us, places we have seen and things we have done
Humans are a species of primates
Most primates live in social groups
The existence of a large social group requires the identification of individuals and assigning them a social status
Therefore, it is important for us to be able to reliably categorise and individuate people we encounter
Why are faces important?
Faces are the vehicle of important information such as gender, expressions etc.
From evolutionary perspective, face recognition and classification is an important mechanism for survival
- Recognise individuals
- Assess group status
- Judge fertility
Cross-species face recognition
Similarities exist in the face processing systems of different species
For example, many primate species preferentially orient towards faces of their own-species (e.g., Kim, Gunderson, & Swartz, 1999)
It might reflect a common origin selected by evolution
Theoretical accounts of face recognition: The Bruce and Young model (1986)
Recognition is facilitated by the development of PERSON IDENTITY NODES (PINs), which are composed of FACE RECOGNITION UNITS (FRUs)
Valentine (1991): multi-dimensional face-space model
indicate that how faces are encoded, that we might be more familiar with some faces but not another
Identification of familiar faces is achieved through the activation of stable “average” representations
Cortical basis of face recognition
Face Fusiform Area
activated more by faces than other visual objects
Lesion in face fusiform area leads to…
Prosopagnosia (face blindness): inability to recognise other humans by their faces
Haxby et al.(2000): Distributed neural system for face processing
a complex process that involved different regions related to specific visual analysis such as emotion, identity
Configural (features of face) Processing
It is processing the distances between major face features such as the eyes, nose, and mouth, and between these features and face contours that specify differences among individuals.
To discriminate different faces, and recognise it
Faces are recognised more accurately and faster when…
presented in the canonical orientation than when presented upside-down (Yin, 1969)
Inversion Effect (Tanaka & Farah, 1993)
Disrupt the configural processing
Identifying inverted (upside-down) faces compared to upright faces is much more difficult than doing the same for non-facial objects
Early face processing system
Johnson & Morton, 1991
Preference for face schema at birth, infants prefer to look at the face stimulus rather than the scrambled and blank stimulus
Infant Face Recognition: mother’s face (Bushnell et al., 1989)
Preference for mother’s face at 3 days of age
Recognition of a picture of a face (Pascalis and de Schonen, 1994)
learned 2 minutes before in 4-day-olds
Infant human face recognition: (Pascalis et al., 1998)
3- and 6-month-olds recognize human faces presented on different point of view
Infant Face Recognition
Infants’ ability to process different aspect of faces is well developed during the first year of life
Pascalis, de Haan, & Nelson (2002): Young infants are able to recognise individual primate faces
Suggest they have a broader capacity to recognise faces as this ability declines between 6-9 months of age unless artificial exposure is provided
Visual preference for race: Kelly et al. (2005)
Examined the face preferences of different races in neonates and 3-month-old infants
Visual preference for race: Kelly et al. (2005) findings
Newborn infants did not show any preferences for their own or other-race faces
As what they perceive were just normal faces, the race (different colour of faces) do not mean anything to them
Visual preference for race: Kelly et al. (2005) findings
3-month-old infants showed preferences at own-race faces when paired with other-race faces
Suggest that categorisation of faces formed
Visual preference for race in infants
Newborn infants are able to perceive differences between racial categories, but the differences are meaningless to them
Predominant exposure to own-race faces such as their parents produces preferential looking by 3-months of age
Early face preferences are shaped by the environment
Phoneme Discrimination
at birth, we are sensitive to all phonemes across all languages, as there is no default language for neonates
When infants get older and their brain develops and expose more to their native language
Start losing the ability to distinguish phonemes of different languages
Werker & Tees (2002): suggest that the perceptual narrowing phenomenon occurs within the first year of life
Infants aged 6–8 months have a greater ability to distinguish between nonnative sounds in comparison to infants who are 8–10 months of age
Near the end of 12 months, infants are beginning to understand and produce speech in their native language
by the end of the first year of life infants detect these phonemic distinctions at low levels that are similar to that of adult
Face recognition: Perceptual Narrowing
Developmental process which the brain uses environmental experiences to shape perceptual abilities
It improves the perception of things that people experience often and causes declined ability to things that not often exposed to
Kelly et al. (2007; 2009): used preferential looking to examine the face recognition in 3, 6 and 9-month-old infants, to see whether they can distinguish between different races such as Caucasian, Chinese, Middle Eastern and African
3 months: no significant difference in preferential looking at own-race
6 months: started to show some preferences
9 months: showed narrowed behaviour in recognising own-race faces
Face perceptual narrowing showed by infants
suggest they categorised the faces and apply a label to them, so they can discriminate the difference in terms of race
From the evolutionary perspective, the perceptual narrowing formed
because people need to be cautious and aware of the others who are different, as it may be a potential threat
What is the function of narrowing?
Narrowing help us to become efficient at processing the types of information most frequently encountered
Reflects the interaction between immature cognitive systems and early experience
The face system would have kept comparable abilities throughout evolution
It is then possible that a good part of the face system development is genetically determined
The environment will finalize the specialisation of the face system
Early visual deprivation: Le Grand et al. (2001)
Found that deprivation of patterned visual information in early infancy left permanent deficits in configural processing
Le Grand et al. (2001): Tested adolescents born with cataracts that were removed between 2-6 months of age
At time of test, all patients had a minimum of nine years visual experience
Cataract patient’s performance was significantly poorer than aged matched-controls and adults
This supports that early visual deprivation will lead to deficits in configural processing
Mondloch, Lewis, Levin & Maurer (2013) tested infants with cataracts removed within first weeks of life
Found infants showed a preference for face-like stimuli (config) over an inverted counterpart
Like newborns, but unlike age matched controls which means they show a poorer performance
Sugita (2008): Early visual deprivation in animals
Raised infant monkeys without exposure to faces for 6-24 months, only to a rich visual environment
Sugita (2008): Following deprivation period, monkeys were exposed to either human or monkey faces
Despite a lack of exposure to faces, infant monkeys displayed recognition abilities for own- and other-species faces
Sugita (2008): findings
Infant monkeys could recognize and discriminate faces on the basis of configural as well as local information.
