Effects of Encoding Tasks on the Own-Age Face Recognition Bias

In the current study, we evaluated the own-age face recognition bias by using various encoding tasks to evaluate the robustness and potential limitations of the own-age bias. One hundred sixty young adults studied photographs of children, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults and were assigned to one of four encoding conditions (i.e., age estimate, attractiveness rating, friendliness rating, and a face search task). Subsequent recognition tests revealed a robust own-age bias such that participants recognized own-age faces better than other-age faces regardless of encoding task. The current study showed that encoding tasks that focus on socially relevant characteristics (i.e., attractiveness ratings and friendliness ratings) do not eliminate or weaken the own-age bias compared to tasks that specifically focus on the age of the face. These findings indicate that in-group/out-group categorization requires little conscious processing and may be automatic, which is consistent with Sporer's (2001) in-group/out-group model (IOM) of facial processing.     

An own-age bias in face recognition for children and older adults

In the present study, we examined whether children and older adults exhibit an own-age face recognition bias. Participants studied photographs of children, younger adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults and were administered a recognition test. Results showed that both children and older adults more accurately recognized own-age faces than other-age faces. These data suggest that individuals may acquire expertise for identifying faces from their own age group and are discussed in terms of Sporer’s (2001) in-group/out-group model of face recognition.     

Eye movements do not reflect retrieval processes: limits of the eye-mind hypothesis

Abstract— This research investigated whether eye movements are informative about retrieval processes. Participants learned facts about persons and locations, and the number of facts (fan) learned about each person and location was manipulated. During a subsequent recognition test, participants made more gazes to high-fan facts than to low-fan facts, and gazes to high-fan facts had a longer duration than gazes to low-fan facts. However, there was no relation between the order in which items were fixated and the relative effect of person or location fan. The effect of person and location fan on gaze duration also did not differ with whether it was the person or location being fixated. A model assuming that the process of retrieval is independent of eye movements was successfully fit to the data on the distribution of gaze durations. According to this model, the effect of fan on number of gazes and gaze duration is an artifact of the longer retrieval times for high-fan facts.     

知觉场理论对面孔知觉年龄偏差效应的解释

使用融合面孔范式和倒置面孔范式来研究面孔知觉的年龄偏差效应,检验知觉场能否作为面孔整体加工的指标,并以此发展年龄偏差的整体加工解释。结果发现：（1）成人和儿童在加工正立面孔时的知觉场均大于加工倒置面孔时的知觉场;（2）在加工正立面孔时,成人加工本年龄面孔比加工他年龄面孔的知觉场更大。上述结果表明：（1）知觉场大小可以作为面孔整体加工的指标,且受面孔朝向的影响;（2）知觉场假设可以解释面孔的年龄偏差效应。     

Children view own-age faces qualitatively differently to other-age faces

Like most own-group biases in face recognition, the own-age bias (OAB) is thought to be based either on perceptual expertise or socio-cognitive motivational mechanisms [Wolff, N., Kemter, K., Schweinberger, S. R., &; Wiese, H. (2013). What drives social in-group biases in face recognition memory? ERP evidence from the own-gender bias. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. doi:10.1093/scan/nst024]. The present study employed a recognition paradigm with eye-tracking in order to assess whether participants actively viewed faces of their own-age differently to that of other-age faces. The results indicated a significant OAB (superior recognition for own-age relative to other-age faces), provided that they were upright, indicative of expertise being employed for the recognition of own-age faces. However, the eye-tracking results indicate that viewing other-age faces was qualitatively different to the viewing of own-age faces, with more nose fixations for other-age faces. These results are interpreted as supporting the socio-cognitive model of the OAB.     

自闭症谱系障碍儿童对面孔加工的同龄偏向效应

采用视觉追踪技术,探讨自闭症谱系障碍(autism spectrum disorders, ASD)儿童面孔加工的同龄偏向效应。实验1选取19名ASD儿童和23名生理年龄匹配的普通儿童(typically developing, TD)为被试,通过自由观看同龄和异龄中性面孔,探讨ASD儿童是否存在面孔加工的同龄偏向效应;实验2选取22名ASD儿童和生理年龄匹配的25名TD儿童,通过自由观看快乐、愤怒和恐惧面孔,探讨情绪对ASD儿童面孔加工同龄偏向的影响。结果发现,(1)ASD儿童对同龄中性面孔的注视时间显著大于异龄中性面孔;(2)ASD儿童在愤怒和恐惧情绪下对同龄面孔的注视时间显著大于异龄面孔,而在快乐情绪下同龄和异龄的注视时间则无显著差异。这表明ASD儿童对面孔的注视加工存在同龄偏向效应,且受情绪的影响。     

知觉场理论对面孔知觉年龄偏差效应的解释

使用融合面孔范式和倒置面孔范式来研究面孔知觉的年龄偏差效应,检验知觉场能否作为面孔整体加工的指标,并以此发展年龄偏差的整体加工解释。结果发现：（1）成人和儿童在加工正立面孔时的知觉场均大于加工倒置面孔时的知觉场;（2）在加工正立面孔时,成人加工本年龄面孔比加工他年龄面孔的知觉场更大。上述结果表明：（1）知觉场大小可以作为面孔整体加工的指标,且受面孔朝向的影响;（2）知觉场假设可以解释面孔的年龄偏差效应。     

Stable middle-aged face recognition: No moderation of the own-age bias across contexts

The own-age bias (OAB) has been proposed to be caused by perceptual expertise and/or social-cognitive mechanisms. Investigations into the role of social cognition have, however, yielded mixed results. One reason for this might be the tendency for research to focus on the OAB in young adults, between young and older adult faces where other-age individuation experience is low. To explore whether social-cognitive manipulations may be successful when observers have sufficient other-age individuation experience, we examined biases involving middle-aged other-age faces and the influence of a context manipulation. Across four experiments, young adult participants were presented with middle-aged faces alongside young or older adult faces to remember. We predicted that in contexts where middle-aged faces were positioned as other-age faces (alongside young adult faces), recognition performance would be worse than when they were positioned as relative own-age faces (alongside older adult faces). However, the context manipulations did not moderate middle age face recognition. This suggests that past findings that context does not change other-age face recognition holds for other-age faces for which observers have higher individuation experience. These findings are consistent with a perceptual expertise account of the OAB but more investigation of the generality of these results is required.     

WHAT PREDICTS THE OWN-AGE BIAS IN FACE RECOGNITION MEMORY?

Younger and older adults' visual scan patterns were examined as they passively viewed younger and older neutral faces. Both participant age groups tended to look longer at their own-age as compared to other-age faces. In addition, both age groups reported more exposure to own-age than other-age individuals. Importantly, the own-age bias in visual inspection of faces and the own-age bias in self-reported amount of exposure to young and older individuals in everyday life, but not explicit age stereotypes and implicit age associations, significantly and independently predicted the own-age bias in later old/new face recognition. We suggest these findings reflect increased personal and social relevance of, and more accessible and elaborated schemas for, own-age than other-age faces.     

An own-age bias in age estimation of faces

IntroductionAge estimation performances may be influenced by group biases.ObjectiveThis study investigated whether we are more accurate at estimating the age of people from one's own-age than the age of younger or older people.MethodChildren, young and older adults’ performances at estimating both in-group and out-group faces were compared.ResultsA significant “Age of participants” × “Age of face stimuli” interaction was revealed. Moreover, the age of children's faces was more accurately estimated than the age of young and older adults’ faces by the three groups of participants.ConclusionThe present results revealed the occurrence of an own-age bias for children, young and older adults in age estimation. Several explanations to this own-age effect are discussed.     

Two routes to face perception: evidence from psychophysics and computational modeling

The aim of this study was to separately analyze the role of featural and configural face representations. Stimuli containing only featural information were created by cutting the faces into their parts and scrambling them. Stimuli only containing configural information were created by blurring the faces. Employing an old-new recognition task, the aim of Experiments 1 and 2 was to investigate whether unfamiliar faces (Exp. 1) or familiar faces (Exp. 2) can be recognized if only featural or configural information is provided. Both scrambled and blurred faces could be recognized above chance level. A further aim of Experiments 1 and 2 was to investigate whether our method of creating configural and featural stimuli is valid. Pre-activation of one form of representation did not facilitate recognition of the other, neither for unfamiliar faces (Exp. 1) nor for familiar faces (Exp. 2). This indicates a high internal validity of our method for creating configural and featural face stimuli. Experiment 3 examined whether features placed in their correct categorical relational position but with distorted metrical distances facilitated recognition of unfamiliar faces. These faces were recognized no better than the scrambled faces in Experiment 1, providing further evidence that facial features are stored independently of configural information. From these results we conclude that both featural and configural information are important to recognize a face and argue for a dual-mode hypothesis of face processing. Using the psychophysical results as motivation, we propose a computational framework that implements featural and configural processing routes using an appearance-based representation based on local features and their spatial relations. In three computational experiments (Experiments 4–6) using the same sets of stimuli, we show how this framework is able to model the psychophysical data.     

A developmental study of the own-age face recognition bias in children

The own-age bias is one in which people recognize faces of people their own age more accurately than faces of other ages (e.g., Anastasi & Rhodes, 2005, 2006) and appears to be, at least, partially based on experience (Harrison & Hole, 2009). Indeed, Hills and Lewis (2011a) have shown that 8-year-old faces are more accurately recognized by 8-year-old children than by 6- or 11-year-old children, suggesting the own-age bias develops rapidly. The present study explores the own-age bias in a developmental study in participants aged 6-10 years. Ninety participants (divided into 3 groups of 30 on the basis of their age at the first time of testing) undertook a standard old/new recognition paradigm in which their recognition accuracy was measured for 8- and 20-year-old faces. Results showed that when the participants were 8 years old, they recognized 8-year-old faces more accurately than when they were 7 or 9 years old. This effect was found to be based on mechanisms that differ from simple developmental improvement. This is the first study to show the development of the own-age bias in face recognition using a longitudinal design. These results show that the face recognition system is updated on the basis of recent experience and/or motivation to process faces, creating recognition biases.     

Age biases in face processing: the effects of experience across development

In this paper, I review studies investigating discrimination and recognition abilities for faces of different ages in children and adults. Contrary to the earlier assertion that own-age faces are better recognized than other-age faces (own-age bias; OAB), I discuss recent evidence for a processing advantage for adult versus non-adult faces. This evidence is interpreted as suggesting that the precocious and continuous exposure to adult faces may shape the individual's face representation across development. Moreover, by testing how experience with faces of various ages acquired at different times in development modulates face-processing skills, this evidence shows that plasticity of face recognition abilities decreases with age, but early-acquired experience has enduring effects that impact our ability to learn from encounters with new types of faces in adulthood.     

More Inaccurate But Not More Biased: Anxiety During Encoding Impairs Face Recognition Accuracy But Does Not Moderate the Own‐Ethnicity Bias

Heightened state anxiety can have a deleterious impact on memory for faces. In this paper we investigated whether anxiety: (i) moderates the own‐ethnicity bias (OEB) and (ii) impairs face recognition accuracy at the encoding or retrieval phase of an OEB face‐recognition task. Using a typical OEB task, anxiety was induced during encoding and retrieval in Experiment 1, but only during retrieval in Experiment 2. An OEB was found in both experiments, but anxiety did not moderate the OEB in either experiment. In Experiment 1, anxious participants were poorer at face recognition for both own‐ and other‐ethnicity faces. In Experiment 2 anxiety did not impair face recognition. Together, these studies suggest that anxiety impaired participants' encoding, but not retrieval, of faces. The implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

同龄效应的类别化-个体化模型

针对面孔认知偏好的类别化-个体化模型,探讨该模型中的知觉经验、加工方式和动机水平对本龄效应的影响。结果表明增加对异龄面孔的知觉经验、个体化加工异龄面孔及提高加工异龄面孔的动机都能有效改善对异龄面孔的再认,减少本龄效应量。这说明本龄效应遵循类别化-个体化模型,且在类别化-个体化模型中本龄效应与本族效应加工原理相仿。。     

Own-age biases in verbal person memory

Two experiments examined own-age biases in younger adults', older adults', and children's verbal person memory. In line with findings from face recognition studies, Experiment 1 showed that younger adults had a better recall of own-age than of other-age targets, while older adults were unaffected by target age. Participants' self-reported interest in targets did not predict target memory. Experiment 2, which examined children's and younger adults' memory of own- and other-age targets, showed an own-age advantage in children's but not in younger adults' verbal person memory. Differences in expertise of own-/other-age targets, in combination with a development of expertise throughout the lifespan, may account for the findings, although alternative explanations should be considered. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Own-age biases in verbal person memory

Two experiments examined own-age biases in younger adults', older adults', and children's verbal person memory. In line with findings from face recognition studies, Experiment 1 showed that younger adults had a better recall of own-age than of other-age targets, while older adults were unaffected by target age. Participants' self-reported interest in targets did not predict target memory. Experiment 2, which examined children's and younger adults' memory of own- and other-age targets, showed an own-age advantage in children's but not in younger adults' verbal person memory. Differences in expertise of own-/other-age targets, in combination with a development of expertise throughout the Hfespan, may account for the findings, although alternative explanations should be considered. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Losing face: impaired discrimination of featural and configural information in the mouth region of an inverted face

Given that all faces share the same set of features—two eyes, a nose, and a mouth—that are arranged in similar configuration, recognition of a specific face must depend on our ability to discern subtle differences in its featural and configural properties. An enduring question in the face-processing literature is whether featural or configural information plays a larger role in the recognition process. To address this question, the face dimensions task was designed, in which the featural and configural properties in the upper (eye) and lower (mouth) regions of a face were parametrically and independently manipulated. In a same–different task, two faces were sequentially presented and tested in their upright or in their inverted orientation. Inversion disrupted the perception of featural size (Exp. 1), featural shape (Exp. 2), and configural changes in the mouth region, but it had relatively little effect on the discrimination of featural size and shape and configural differences in the eye region. Inversion had little effect on the perception of information in the top and bottom halves of houses (Exp. 3), suggesting that the lower-half impairment was specific to faces. Spatial cueing to the mouth region eliminated the inversion effect (Exp. 4), suggesting that participants have a bias to attend to the eye region of an inverted face. The collective findings from these experiments suggest that inversion does not differentially impair featural or configural face perceptions, but rather impairs the perception of information in the mouth region of the face.     

Age differences in facial trustworthiness judgement based on multiple facial cues

Multiple facial cues such as facial expression and face gender simultaneously influence facial trustworthiness judgement in adults. The current work was to examine the effect of multiple facial cues on trustworthiness judgement across age groups. Eight-, 10-year-olds, and adults detect trustworthiness from happy and neutral adult faces (female and male faces) in Experiment 1. Experiment 2 included both adult and child faces wearing happy, angry, and neutral expressions. Nine-, 11-, 13-year-olds, and adults had to rate facial trustworthiness with a 7-point Likert scale. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that facial expression and face gender independently affected facial trustworthiness judgement in children aged 10 and below but simultaneously affected judgement in children aged 11 and above, adolescents, and adults. There was no own-age bias in children and adults. The results showed that children younger than 10 could not process multiple facial cues in the same manner as in older children and adults when judging trustworthiness. The current findings provide evidence for the stable-feature account, but not for the own-age bias account or the expertise account.