Faces

Why are faces important in social cognition?

Faces provide information about identity, gender, race, health, attractiveness, emotion, gaze, trustworthiness, competence, and more.

How does face perception and evaluation influence adults?

It guides social cognition and behavior.

What did Todorov et al. find about faces and elections?

Judgments of competence based solely on facial appearance predicted election outcomes better than chance.

How quickly can competence judgments from faces occur?

Within about 1 second of viewing a face.

Why are adults considered face-processing experts?

They have highly specialized brain systems and extensive experience with faces.

What are the two major signatures of adult face processing?

Configural processing and specificity for certain kinds of faces (species and race).

What is configural processing?

Processing a face based on relationships among facial features rather than isolated features.

What are the three components of configural processing?

Inversion effects, holistic processing, and sensitivity to spacing between features.

What is the face inversion effect?

Face recognition becomes much more difficult when faces are presented upside down.

What does the inversion effect demonstrate?

The upright face-processing advantage.

What is holistic processing?

Perceiving facial features as an integrated whole (Gestalt).

How does holistic processing affect face recognition?

Adults recognize identities better when the entire face is visible than when parts are occluded.

Why is spacing between facial features important?

Adults can identify faces based on subtle spacing differences between features.

How does inversion affect spacing judgments?

Recognition of spacing differences is impaired when faces are upside down.

What is own-species specificity?

Adults recognize faces from their own species better than faces from other species.

How do adult humans and monkeys show own-species specificity?

Humans are better at recognizing human faces, while monkeys are better at recognizing monkey faces.

What is the other-race effect?

Adults recognize faces of their own race better than faces of other races.

What causes the other-race effect?

Greater experience with faces from one's own racial group.

What four major topics are studied in infant face processing?

Face detection, face recognition, face categories, and experience.

What did Johnson et al. (2001) find about newborn face detection?

Newborns follow face-like patterns farther than control stimuli.

What conclusion did Johnson et al. draw?

Infants possess an innate preference for faces.

What evidence suggests face preference may begin before birth?

Fetuses orient toward face-like patterns in 4D ultrasound studies.

What alternative explanation was proposed by Macchi Cassia et al. (2004)?

Newborns may prefer top-heavy patterns rather than faces specifically.

How did Macchi Cassia et al. challenge Johnson et al.'s interpretation?

They suggested face preferences could reflect attraction to top-heavy visual arrangements.

What did Farroni et al. (2005) find?

Newborns do not prefer top-heavy patterns that are not face-like.

What does Farroni et al.'s finding suggest?

Newborn preferences are likely face-specific rather than simply top-heavy preferences.

What face preference do newborns show?

A preference for their mother's face.

Which studies found newborn preference for mothers' faces?

Bushnell et al. (1989) and Field et al. (1984).

Does maternal face preference remain when scent cues are removed?

Yes, infants still prefer their mother's face.

What happened when Pascalis et al. (1995) removed outer facial features?

The preference for the mother's face disappeared.

Which facial features seem especially important early in life?

External features such as hairline and hair.

How do infant face-scanning patterns change with age?

Infants increasingly focus on internal features such as the eyes and mouth.

Why would newborns struggle to distinguish highly similar faces?

Their face-processing abilities are not yet fully developed.

What can older infants do that newborns cannot?

Encode and remember novel individuals.

Who demonstrated older infants' ability to remember novel faces?

Pascalis et al. (1998).

How do 2- to 5-month-olds differ from newborns in face recognition?

They can recognize familiar faces even when external features are removed.

What additional face-recognition ability develops in older infants?

Recognition of individuals across different viewing angles.

Do infants show evidence of configural face processing?

Yes.

Which three forms of configural processing are seen in infants?

Inversion effects, holistic processing, and sensitivity to spacing between features.

What was the main finding of Study 1 on inversion effects?

Infants recognized familiar upright faces but failed when faces were inverted.

What does Study 1 demonstrate?

An inversion effect in infancy.

What was the main finding of Study 2 regarding inverted facial features?

Seven- and nine-month-olds recognized faces when external features were inverted, but infants of all ages failed when internal features were inverted.

Which facial features become increasingly important with age?

Internal features such as the eyes, nose, and mouth.

What was the main finding of Study 3?

Seven- and nine-month-olds recognized faces when internal features were replaced, but younger infants did not.

What did all infants succeed at in Study 3?

Recognizing faces when external features were replaced.

What does Study 3 suggest about development?

Reliance on internal facial features develops gradually.

What evidence supports holistic processing in infants?

Seven-month-olds looked longer at novel and switched faces than familiar faces.

What does looking longer at switched faces indicate?

Infants process faces holistically rather than as separate features.

What is the overall conclusion about infant face processing?

It is configural and tuned to upright faces early in infancy.

What aspect of face recognition develops more slowly?

Attention to internal facial features.

What did Pascalis et al. (2002) investigate?

Whether experience influences recognition of human and monkey faces.

How old were infants tested in Pascalis et al. (2002)?

Six and nine months.

How did infants perform with human faces?

Both age groups recognized novel human faces.

How did six-month-olds perform with monkey faces?

They could discriminate between monkey faces.

How did nine-month-olds perform with monkey faces?

They could no longer reliably discriminate monkey faces.

What developmental process does this illustrate?

Perceptual narrowing.

What is perceptual narrowing?

A developmental process in which experience tunes perception toward commonly encountered stimuli.

What did Scott and Monesson (2009) do?

Trained infants with monkey faces for three months.

What were the three training conditions?

Individual labels, category labels, and exposure only.

Which training condition preserved monkey-face discrimination?

Individual-label (name) training.

What does the success of individual-label training suggest?

Individuating faces promotes face-recognition expertise.

Did simple exposure alone preserve monkey-face recognition?

No.

What did Quinn et al. (2002) find about caregiver gender?

Infants prefer and better recognize faces matching their primary caregiver's gender.

What do infants with female primary caregivers prefer?

Female faces.

What do infants with male primary caregivers prefer?

Male faces.

At what age were these gender preferences observed?

Around 3–4 months.

What can 3-month-old infants do regarding race?

Discriminate among faces from multiple races.

What preference do 3-month-olds already show?

A preference for own-race faces.

What begins to happen by 6 months?

Recognition of other-race faces starts to decline.

What is observed by 9 months?

Infants can reliably discriminate only among own-race faces.

Which study demonstrated race-related perceptual narrowing?

Kelly et al. (2007).

What did Liu et al. (2015) find about race and gender preferences?

Female-face preference was observed only for own-race faces.

How does the female-face preference change with age?

It declines and disappears by 9 months.

In which infant population was this pattern observed?

Chinese infants.

Was a similar own-race female preference observed in Caucasian-American infants?

Yes (Quinn et al., 2008).

How does experience with male faces affect female-face preference?

Greater experience with male faces reduces preference for female faces.

What type of relationship was found between experience with male faces and female preference?

A negative correlation.

How skilled are adults at face processing?

Adults are experts at face processing.

What is the main finding regarding face detection in newborns?

They preferentially orient toward face-like patterns.

When does face recognition emerge?

Very early in development.

How does face recognition change during the first year?

It becomes increasingly tuned to the infant's environment.

Which face categories are infants sensitive to?

Species, gender, and race.

What role does experience play in face processing?

It shapes preferences and recognition abilities.

What is one major developmental outcome of experience with faces?

Perceptual narrowing toward frequently encountered face types.

What is the overall takeaway from the lecture?

Infants begin life with broad face-processing abilities, and experience gradually specializes these abilities toward the faces most common in their environment.