The own‐age face recognition bias is task dependent |
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| Authors: | Valentina Proietti Viola Macchi Cassia Catherine J. Mondloch |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, University of Milano‐Bicocca, Milan, Italy;2. Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada |
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| Abstract: | The own‐age bias (OAB) in face recognition (more accurate recognition of own‐age than other‐age faces) is robust among young adults but not older adults. We investigated the OAB under two different task conditions. In Experiment 1 young and older adults (who reported more recent experience with own than other‐age faces) completed a match‐to‐sample task with young and older adult faces; only young adults showed an OAB. In Experiment 2 young and older adults completed an identity detection task in which we manipulated the identity strength of target and distracter identities by morphing each face with an average face in 20% steps. Accuracy increased with identity strength and facial age influenced older adults' (but not younger adults') strategy, but there was no evidence of an OAB. Collectively, these results suggest that the OAB depends on task demands and may be absent when searching for one identity. |
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| Keywords: | face recognition identity detection own‐age bias identity strength |
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