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Recognizing people from the inner or outer parts of their faces: Developmental data concerning ‘unfamiliar’ faces
Author(s) -
Want Stephen C.,
Pascalis Olivier,
Coleman Mike,
Blades Mark
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1348/026151003321164663
Subject(s) - psychology , chin , face (sociological concept) , facial recognition system , cognitive psychology , task (project management) , developmental psychology , pattern recognition (psychology) , medicine , management , economics , anatomy , social science , sociology
Existing data demonstrate a developmental trend in the way in which highly familiar faces are recognized, such that young children rely more on the outer facial features (the hairline, chin and ears) than the inner facial features (the eyes, nose and mouth) and adults demonstrate the reverse pattern. However, little is known about the developmental pattern of importance of inner and outer facial features for recognizing people who are not highly familiar. Here we report a study which attempts to describe this pattern. Using a two‐alternative forced‐choice procedure, we presented 5‐, 7‐, and 9‐year‐olds and adults ( N = 22 in each group) with the task of recognizing an experimentally familiarized face (initially seen in a short video) from a still picture of either the whole face, just the inner, or just the outer parts. The results showed that, for all ages, recognition was faster (and in most cases, more accurate) for outer features alone than for inner features alone (and was fastest for whole faces). These data demonstrate the importance of outer facial features for the recognition of relatively unfamiliar faces. Taken together with previous findings, they enhance our picture of the effects of age and experience with individual faces on recognition and configural processing.