Configural face perception in childhood and adolescence: An individual differences approach. 2018

Anastasia Petrakova, and Werner Sommer, and Martin Junge, and Andrea Hildebrandt
Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Germany. Electronic address: petrakoa@hu-berlin.de.

Cognitive experimental and neuroscientific research in adults indicates that an important property of face perception is its specificity and reliance on configural processing. In addition, individual differences in face perception between adults cannot be entirely explained through general cognitive functioning and object cognition. Although recent years have witnessed growing interest in the development of face perception through childhood and adolescence, as yet, little is known about individual differences in configural face perception in this period of life, and whether these differences are face-specific. Here, we addressed these questions in a large sample (N = 338) drawn continuously from age six to 21. We applied a face composite task and a spatial manipulation task including stimulus inversion. Immediate and delayed face memory were assessed as covariates of configural face perception. Content specificity in configural face perception was tested by analogous tasks with houses as stimuli. In addition, we measured working memory and fluid intelligence. Our results show that there are large individual differences in configural face perception across the entire age range from six to 21 years. Supporting theories of early maturation, configural face perception was almost adult-like already at age six. Individual differences in configural face perception were related with immediate and delayed face memory and fluid intelligence across the whole age range. In sum, we provide novel evidence on large individual differences in configural face and object perception already in middle childhood, complementing findings from aging studies and providing new perspectives for further research.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007206 Individuality Those psychological characteristics which differentiate individuals from one another. Individual Differences,Difference, Individual,Differences, Individual,Individual Difference
D007360 Intelligence The ability to learn and to deal with new situations and to deal effectively with tasks involving abstractions.
D008297 Male Males
D008570 Memory, Short-Term Remembrance of information for a few seconds to hours. Immediate Recall,Memory, Immediate,Working Memory,Memory, Shortterm,Immediate Memories,Immediate Memory,Immediate Recalls,Memories, Immediate,Memories, Short-Term,Memories, Shortterm,Memory, Short Term,Recall, Immediate,Recalls, Immediate,Short-Term Memories,Short-Term Memory,Shortterm Memories,Shortterm Memory,Working Memories
D012094 Repression, Psychology The active mental process of keeping out and ejecting, banishing from consciousness, ideas or impulses that are unacceptable to it. Delayed Memory,False Memory Syndrome,Repressed Memory,Repression,Delayed Memories,False Memory Syndromes,Memories, Delayed,Memories, Repressed,Memory Syndrome, False,Memory, Delayed,Memory, Repressed,Psychology Repression,Syndrome, False Memory
D002648 Child A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL. Children
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000066499 Facial Recognition Ability to identify an individual from their facial features. Face Emotion Perception,Face Emotion Processing,Face Emotion Recognition,Face Processing,Face Recognition,Facial Emotion Recognition,Facial Expression Recognition,Facial Identity Recognition,Face Perception,Emotion Perception, Face,Emotion Processing, Face,Emotion Recognition, Face,Emotion Recognition, Facial,Expression Recognition, Facial,Identity Recognition, Facial,Perception, Face,Perception, Face Emotion,Processing, Face,Processing, Face Emotion,Recognition, Face,Recognition, Face Emotion,Recognition, Facial,Recognition, Facial Emotion,Recognition, Facial Expression,Recognition, Facial Identity
D000293 Adolescent A person 13 to 18 years of age. Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths

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