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The development of facial identity discrimination through learned attention
Author(s) -
Simpson Elizabeth A.,
Jakobsen Krisztina V.,
Fragaszy Dorothy M.,
Okada Kazunori,
Frick Janet E.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.21194
Subject(s) - psychology , stimulus (psychology) , perception , face perception , cognitive psychology , face (sociological concept) , similarity (geometry) , facial recognition system , identity (music) , developmental psychology , pattern recognition (psychology) , audiology , artificial intelligence , computer science , neuroscience , image (mathematics) , medicine , social science , sociology , physics , acoustics
Learned attention models of perceptual discrimination predict that with age, sensitivity will increase for dimensions of stimuli useful for discrimination. We tested this prediction by examining the face dimensions 4‐ to 6‐month‐olds ( n = 77), 9‐ to 12‐month‐olds ( n = 66), and adults ( n = 73) use for discriminating human, monkey, and sheep faces systematically varying in outer features (contour), inner features (eyes, mouth), or configuration (feature spacing). We controlled interindividual variability across species by varying faces within natural ranges and measured stimulus variability using computational image similarity. We found the most improvement with age in human face discrimination, and older participants discriminated more species and used more facial properties for discrimination, consistent with learned attention models. Older infants and adults discriminated human, monkey, and sheep faces; however, they used different facial properties for primates and sheep. Learned attention models may provide insight into the mechanisms underlying perceptual narrowing. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 56: 1083–1101, 2014.