Face recognition

Question 1

Autobiographical memory

Answer 1

The memory we have for our own lives, things which have happened to us, places we have seen and things we have done

Question 2

Humans are a species of primates

Most primates live in social groups

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Why are faces important?

Answer 3

Faces are the vehicle of important information such as gender, expressions etc.

Question 4

From evolutionary perspective, face recognition and classification is an important mechanism for survival

Answer 4

• Recognise individuals
• Assess group status
• Judge fertility

Question 5

Cross-species face recognition

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Theoretical accounts of face recognition: The Bruce and Young model (1986)

Answer 6

Recognition is facilitated by the 
development of PERSON
IDENTITY NODES (PINs), which 
are composed of FACE 
RECOGNITION UNITS (FRUs)

Question 7

Valentine (1991): multi-dimensional face-space model

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Cortical basis of face recognition

Answer 8

Face Fusiform Area

activated more by faces than other visual objects

Question 9

Lesion in face fusiform area leads to…

Answer 9

Prosopagnosia (face blindness): inability to recognise other humans by their faces

Question 10

Haxby et al.(2000): Distributed neural system for face processing

Answer 10

a complex process that involved different regions related to specific visual analysis such as emotion, identity

Question 11

Configural (features of face) Processing

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Faces are recognised more accurately and faster when…

Answer 12

presented in the canonical orientation than when presented upside-down (Yin, 1969)

Question 13

Inversion Effect (Tanaka & Farah, 1993)

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Early face processing system

Johnson & Morton, 1991

Answer 14

Preference for face schema at birth, infants prefer to look at the face stimulus rather than the scrambled and blank stimulus

Question 15

Infant Face Recognition: mother’s face (Bushnell et al., 1989)

Answer 15

Preference for mother’s face at 3 days of age

Question 16

Recognition of a picture of a face (Pascalis and de Schonen, 1994)

Answer 16

learned 2 minutes before in 4-day-olds

Question 17

Infant human face recognition: (Pascalis et al., 1998)

Answer 17

3- and 6-month-olds recognize human faces presented on different point of view

Question 18

Infant Face Recognition

Answer 18

Infants’ ability to process different aspect of faces is well developed during the first year of life

Question 19

Pascalis, de Haan, & Nelson (2002): Young infants are able to recognise individual primate faces

Answer 19

Suggest they have a broader capacity to recognise faces as this ability declines between 6-9 
months of age unless artificial 
exposure is provided

Question 20

Visual preference for race: Kelly et al. (2005)

Answer 20

Examined the face preferences of different races in neonates and 3-month-old infants

Question 21

Visual preference for race: Kelly et al. (2005) findings

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Visual preference for race: Kelly et al. (2005) findings

Answer 22

3-month-old infants showed preferences at own-race faces when paired with other-race faces

Suggest that categorisation of faces formed

Question 23

Visual preference for race in infants

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Phoneme Discrimination

Answer 24

at birth, we are sensitive to all phonemes across all languages, as there is no default language for neonates

Question 25

When infants get older and their brain develops and expose more to their native language

Answer 25

Start losing the ability to distinguish phonemes of different languages

Question 26

Werker & Tees (2002): suggest that the perceptual narrowing phenomenon occurs within the first year of life

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Face recognition: Perceptual Narrowing

Answer 27

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

Question 28

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

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Face perceptual narrowing showed by infants

Answer 29

suggest they categorised the faces and apply a label to them, so they can discriminate the difference in terms of race

Question 30

From the evolutionary perspective, the perceptual narrowing formed

Answer 30

because people need to be cautious and aware of the others who are different, as it may be a potential threat

Question 31

What is the function of narrowing?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

The face system would have kept comparable abilities throughout evolution

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Early visual deprivation: Le Grand et al. (2001)

Answer 33

Found that deprivation of patterned visual information in early infancy left permanent deficits in configural processing

Question 34

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

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Mondloch, Lewis, Levin & Maurer (2013) tested infants with cataracts removed within first weeks of life

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Sugita (2008): Early visual deprivation in animals

Answer 36

Raised infant monkeys without exposure to faces for 6-24 months, only to a rich visual environment

Question 37

Sugita (2008): Following deprivation period, monkeys were exposed to either human or monkey faces

Answer 37

Despite a lack of exposure to faces, infant monkeys displayed recognition abilities for own- and other-species faces

Question 38

Sugita (2008): findings

Answer 38

Infant monkeys could recognize and discriminate faces on the basis of configural as well as local information.