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Sensoy Ö, Krasotkina A, Götz A, Höhle B, Schwarzer G. Successful sensitization of 2.5-year-olds to other-race faces through bimodal training. Infant Behav Dev 2024; 77:101995. [PMID: 39316914 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2024.101995] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2023] [Revised: 09/15/2024] [Accepted: 09/18/2024] [Indexed: 09/26/2024]
Abstract
The present study investigated the potential for sensitizing 2.5-year-old Caucasian infants to other-race faces (Asian faces). In the domain of face perception, infants become less sensitive to facial distinctions of other-race faces through perceptual narrowing at the end of the first year of life. Nevertheless, infants around 12 months can regain their sensitivity to other-race faces. For instance, exposing them to a specific statistical distribution and employing the mechanisms of statistical learning is one way to enhance their discriminatory abilities towards other-race faces. Following this idea, we investigated if even older infants around 2.5 years can be sensitized to other-race faces. We trained the infants with a bimodal distribution of a morphed continuum of Asian female faces with faces closer to the endpoints presented most frequently. We assessed infants' discrimination of Asian faces by measuring their looking times after the training phase. The 2.5-year-olds showed a difference in looking times after the training, indicating that the exposure to a bimodal frequency distribution led to a successful discrimination between Asian faces. These findings demonstrate that 2.5-year-olds can be sensitized to other-race faces by exposing them to a bimodal distribution of such faces, underlining the plasticity of face perception in childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Özlem Sensoy
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
| | - Anna Krasotkina
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
| | - Antonia Götz
- MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University, Australia
| | - Barbara Höhle
- Department of Linguistics, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Gudrun Schwarzer
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
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2
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Hartston M, Lulav-Bash T, Goldstein-Marcusohn Y, Avidan G, Hadad BS. Perceptual narrowing continues throughout childhood: Evidence from specialization of face processing. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 245:105964. [PMID: 38823356 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2023] [Revised: 04/17/2024] [Accepted: 04/17/2024] [Indexed: 06/03/2024]
Abstract
Face recognition shows a long trajectory of development and is known to be closely associated with the development of social skills. However, it is still debated whether this long trajectory is perceptually based and what the role is of experience-based refinements of face representations throughout development. We examined the effects of short and long-term experienced stimulus history on face processing, using regression biases of face representations towards the experienced mean. Children and adults performed same-different judgments in a serial discrimination task where two consecutive faces were drawn from a distribution of morphed faces. The results show that face recognition continues to improve after 9 years of age, with more pronounced improvements for own-race faces. This increased narrowing with age is also indicated by similar use of stimulus statistics for own-race and other-race faces in children, contrary to the different use of the overall stimulus history for these two face types in adults. Increased face proficiency in adulthood renders the perceptual system less tuned to other-race face statistics. Altogether, the results demonstrate associations between levels of specialization and the extent to which perceptual representations become narrowly tuned with age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marissa Hartston
- Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Tal Lulav-Bash
- Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel; Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
| | - Yael Goldstein-Marcusohn
- Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Galia Avidan
- Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
| | - Bat-Sheva Hadad
- Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel; Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
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3
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Woo BM, Chisholm GH, Spelke ES. Do toddlers reason about other people's experiences of objects? A limit to early mental state reasoning. Cognition 2024; 246:105760. [PMID: 38447359 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Revised: 01/09/2024] [Accepted: 02/24/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
Human social life requires an understanding of the mental states of one's social partners. Two people who look at the same objects often experience them differently, as a twinkling light or a planet, a 6 or a 9, and a random cat or Cleo, their pet. Indeed, a primary purpose of communication is to share distinctive experiences of objects or events. Here, we test whether toddlers (14-15 months) are sensitive to another agent's distinctive experiences of pictures when determining the goal underlying the agent's actions in a minimally social context. We conducted nine experiments. Across seven of these experiments (n = 206), toddlers viewed either videotaped or live events in which an actor, whose perspective differed from their own, reached (i) for pictures of human faces that were upright or inverted or (ii) for pictures that depicted a rabbit or a duck at different orientations. Then either the actor or the toddler moved to a new location that aligned their perspectives, and the actor alternately reached to each of the two pictures. By comparing toddlers' looking to the latter reaches, we tested whether their goal attributions accorded with the actor's experience of the pictured objects, with their own experience of the pictured objects, or with no consistency. In no experiment did toddlers encode the actor's goal in accord with his experiences of the pictures. In contrast, in a similar experiment that manipulated the visibility of a picture rather than the experience that it elicited, toddlers (n = 32) correctly expected the actor's action to depend on what was visible and occluded to him, rather than to themselves. In a verbal version of the tasks, older children (n = 35) correctly inferred the actor's goal in both cases. These findings provide further evidence for a dissociation between two kinds of mental state reasoning: When toddlers view an actor's object-directed action under minimally social conditions, they take account of the actor's visual access to the object but not the actor's distinctive experience of the object.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brandon M Woo
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States; The Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States.
| | - Gabriel H Chisholm
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States; The Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
| | - Elizabeth S Spelke
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States; The Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
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4
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Maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety during the postpartum period moderate infants' neural response to emotional faces of their mother and of female strangers. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2022; 22:1370-1389. [PMID: 35799031 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-022-01022-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/17/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
Abstract
Affective exchanges between mothers and infants are key to the intergenerational transmission of depression and anxiety, possibly via adaptations in neural systems that support infants' attention to facial affect. The current study examined associations between postnatal maternal symptoms of depression, panic and social anxiety, maternal parenting behaviours, and infants' neural responses to emotional facial expressions portrayed by their mother and by female strangers. The Negative Central (Nc), an event-related potential component that indexes attention to salient stimuli and is sensitive to emotional expression, was recorded from 30 infants. Maternal sensitivity, intrusiveness, and warmth, as well as infant's positive engagement with their mothers, were coded from unstructured interactions. Mothers reporting higher levels of postnatal depression symptoms were rated by coders as less sensitive and warm, and their infants exhibited decreased positive engagement with the mothers. In contrast, postnatal maternal symptoms of panic and social anxiety were not significantly associated with experimenter-rated parenting behaviours. Additionally, infants of mothers reporting greater postnatal depression symptoms showed a smaller Nc to their own mother's facial expressions, whereas infants of mothers endorsing greater postnatal symptoms of panic demonstrated a larger Nc to fearful facial expressions posed by both their mother and female strangers. Together, these results suggest that maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety during the postpartum period have distinct effects on infants' neural responses to parent and stranger displays of emotion.
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Belteki Z, van den Boomen C, Junge C. Face-to-face contact during infancy: How the development of gaze to faces feeds into infants' vocabulary outcomes. Front Psychol 2022; 13:997186. [PMID: 36389540 PMCID: PMC9650530 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.997186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2022] [Accepted: 10/03/2022] [Indexed: 08/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Infants acquire their first words through interactions with social partners. In the first year of life, infants receive a high frequency of visual and auditory input from faces, making faces a potential strong social cue in facilitating word-to-world mappings. In this position paper, we review how and when infant gaze to faces is likely to support their subsequent vocabulary outcomes. We assess the relevance of infant gaze to faces selectively, in three domains: infant gaze to different features within a face (that is, eyes and mouth); then to faces (compared to objects); and finally to more socially relevant types of faces. We argue that infant gaze to faces could scaffold vocabulary construction, but its relevance may be impacted by the developmental level of the infant and the type of task with which they are presented. Gaze to faces proves relevant to vocabulary, as gazes to eyes could inform about the communicative nature of the situation or about the labeled object, while gazes to the mouth could improve word processing, all of which are key cues to highlighting word-to-world pairings. We also discover gaps in the literature regarding how infants' gazes to faces (versus objects) or to different types of faces relate to vocabulary outcomes. An important direction for future research will be to fill these gaps to better understand the social factors that influence infant vocabulary outcomes.
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Gunther KE, Anaya B, Pérez‐Edgar K. Reducing measurement error with ecologically valid testing methods. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2338] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
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7
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The Detection of Face-like Stimuli at the Edge of the Infant Visual Field. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12040493. [PMID: 35448024 PMCID: PMC9026910 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12040493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2022] [Revised: 04/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Human infants are highly sensitive to social information in their visual world. In laboratory settings, researchers have mainly studied the development of social information processing using faces presented on standard computer displays, in paradigms exploring face-to-face, direct eye contact social interactions. This is a simplification of a richer visual environment in which social information derives from the wider visual field and detection involves navigating the world with eyes, head and body movements. The present study measured 9-month-old infants’ sensitivities to face-like configurations across mid-peripheral visual areas using a detection task. Upright and inverted face-like stimuli appeared at one of three eccentricities (50°, 55° or 60°) in the left and right hemifields. Detection rates at different eccentricities were measured from video recordings. Results indicated that infant performance was heterogeneous and dropped beyond 55°, with a marginal advantage for targets appearing in the left hemifield. Infants’ orienting behaviour was not influenced by the orientation of the target stimulus. These findings are key to understanding how face stimuli are perceived outside foveal regions and are informative for the design of infant paradigms involving stimulus presentation across a wider field of view, in more naturalistic visual environments.
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Courtenay K, Wong AHC, Patel R, Girard TA. Emotional memory for facial expressions in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: The role of encoding method. J Psychiatr Res 2022; 146:43-49. [PMID: 34953304 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.12.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2021] [Revised: 10/27/2021] [Accepted: 12/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Memory is better for emotional rather than neutral events or materials (emotional enhancement of memory; EEM). Evidence suggests that this memory benefit remains intact in schizophrenia, but conflicting findings present the need for further research to understand how and when this process occurs. Here, we examine whether different encoding methods for learning emotional faces may result in different EEM patterns in those with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). A patient group (n = 28) and healthy comparisons (n = 29) encoded faces in two conditions that manipulated attentional focus to promote direct (emotion judgements) or indirect (sex discrimination) processing of emotional content. Based on literature in schizophrenia showing selective emotion perception deficits on tasks of direct processing but relatively intact emotion perception on indirect processing tasks, we hypothesized that patients would show greater EEM effects when faces were encoded indirectly. This hypothesis was not supported, and the patient group instead showed a similar intact EEM for angry and fearful faces to healthy comparisons in both encoding conditions. Further, using the Remember/Know paradigm, we demonstrated that the EEM in SSD appears selective to recollection-based memory, which helps to explain inconsistencies in past literature that has not differentiated between recognition domains. These findings have important implications for improving emotional memory and functional outcomes in SSD; future research should establish how the EEM for facial expressions may relate to social functioning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kesia Courtenay
- Department of Psychology, X University (formerly Ryerson University), Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Albert H C Wong
- Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Ronak Patel
- Department of Clinical Health Psychology, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
| | - Todd A Girard
- Department of Psychology, X University (formerly Ryerson University), Toronto, ON, Canada.
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9
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Krasotkina A, Götz A, Höhle B, Schwarzer G. Bimodal familiarization re-sensitizes 12-month-old infants to other-race faces. Infant Behav Dev 2020; 62:101502. [PMID: 33227544 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101502] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2019] [Revised: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Perceptual narrowing in the domain of face perception typically begins to reduce infants' sensitivity to differences distinguishing other-race faces from approximately 6 months of age. The present study investigated whether it is possible to re-sensitize Caucasian 12-month-old infants to other-race Asian faces through statistical learning by familiarizing them with different statistical distributions of these faces. The familiarization faces were created by generating a morphed continuum from one Asian face identity to another. In the unimodal condition, infants were familiarized with a frequency distribution wherein they saw the midpoint face of the morphed continuum the most frequently. In the bimodal condition, infants were familiarized with a frequency distribution wherein they saw faces closer to the endpoints of the morphed continuum the most frequently. After familiarization, infants were tested on their discrimination of the two original Asian faces. The infants' looking times during the test indicated that infants in the bimodal condition could discriminate between the two faces, while infants in the unimodal condition could not. These findings therefore suggest that 12-month-old Caucasian infants could be re-sensitized to Asian faces by familiarizing them with a bimodal frequency distribution of such faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Krasotkina
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Giessen University, Germany.
| | | | | | - Gudrun Schwarzer
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Giessen University, Germany
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10
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Abstract
Recognition of familiar as compared to unfamiliar faces is robust and resistant to marked image distortion or degradation. Here we tested the flexibility of familiar face recognition with a morphing paradigm where the appearance of a personally familiar face was mixed with the appearance of a stranger (Experiment 1) and the appearance of one's own face with the appearance of a familiar face and the appearance of a stranger (Experiment 2). The aim of the two experiments was to assess how categorical boundaries for recognition of identity are affected by familiarity. We found a narrower categorical boundary for the identity of personally familiar faces when they were mixed with unfamiliar identities as compared to the control condition, in which the appearance of two unfamiliar faces was mixed. Our results suggest that familiarity warps the representational geometry of face space, amplifying perceptual distances for small changes in the appearance of familiar faces that are inconsistent with the structural features that define their identities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vassiki Chauhan
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Ilona Kotlewska
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.,Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Humanities, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland
| | - Sunny Tang
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - M Ida Gobbini
- Dipartimento di Medicina Specialistica, Diagnostica e Sperimentale (DIMES), Medical School, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.,Cognitive Science Program, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
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11
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Maurer D, Ghloum JK, Gibson LC, Watson MR, Chen LM, Akins K, Enns JT, Hensch TK, Werker JF. Reduced perceptual narrowing in synesthesia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 117:10089-10096. [PMID: 32321833 PMCID: PMC7211996 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1914668117] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Synesthesia is a neurologic trait in which specific inducers, such as sounds, automatically elicit additional idiosyncratic percepts, such as color (thus "colored hearing"). One explanation for this trait-and the one tested here-is that synesthesia results from unusually weak pruning of cortical synaptic hyperconnectivity during early perceptual development. We tested the prediction from this hypothesis that synesthetes would be superior at making discriminations from nonnative categories that are normally weakened by experience-dependent pruning during a critical period early in development-namely, discrimination among nonnative phonemes (Hindi retroflex /d̪a/ and dental /ɖa/), among chimpanzee faces, and among inverted human faces. Like the superiority of 6-mo-old infants over older infants, the synesthetic groups were significantly better than control groups at making all the nonnative discriminations across five samples and three testing sites. The consistent superiority of the synesthetic groups in making discriminations that are normally eliminated during infancy suggests that residual cortical connectivity in synesthesia supports changes in perception that extend beyond the specific synesthetic percepts, consistent with the incomplete pruning hypothesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daphne Maurer
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1;
| | - Julian K Ghloum
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
| | - Laura C Gibson
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada L8S 4K1
| | - Marcus R Watson
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
| | - Lawrence M Chen
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
| | - Kathleen Akins
- Department of Philosophy, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6
| | - James T Enns
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
| | - Takao K Hensch
- Center for Brain Science, Department of Molecular Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 1M1
- International Research Center for Neurointelligence, University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan 113-0033
| | - Janet F Werker
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 1M1
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12
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13
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Simpson EA, Maylott SE, Mitsven SG, Zeng G, Jakobsen KV. Face detection in 2- to 6-month-old infants is influenced by gaze direction and species. Dev Sci 2019; 23:e12902. [PMID: 31505079 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12902] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2018] [Revised: 07/10/2019] [Accepted: 08/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Humans detect faces efficiently from a young age. Face detection is critical for infants to identify and learn from relevant social stimuli in their environments. Faces with eye contact are an especially salient stimulus, and attention to the eyes in infancy is linked to the emergence of later sociality. Despite the importance of both of these early social skills-attending to faces and attending to the eyes-surprisingly little is known about how they interact. We used eye tracking to explore whether eye contact influences infants' face detection. Longitudinally, we examined 2-, 4-, and 6-month-olds' (N = 65) visual scanning of complex image arrays with human and animal faces varying in eye contact and head orientation. Across all ages, infants displayed superior detection of faces with eye contact; however, this effect varied as a function of species and head orientation. Infants were more attentive to human than animal faces and were more sensitive to eye and head orientation for human faces compared to animal faces. Unexpectedly, human faces with both averted heads and eyes received the most attention. This pattern may reflect the early emergence of gaze following-the ability to look where another individual looks-which begins to develop around this age. Infants may be especially interested in averted gaze faces, providing early scaffolding for joint attention. This study represents the first investigation to document infants' attention patterns to faces systematically varying in their attentional states. Together, these findings suggest that infants develop early, specialized functional conspecific face detection.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Sarah E Maylott
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
| | | | - Guangyu Zeng
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA
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14
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Tibbetts EA, Den Uyl J, Dwortz M, McLean C. The development and evolution of specialized face learning in paper wasps. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.10.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
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15
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Social visual stimuli increase infants suck response: A preliminary study. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0207230. [PMID: 30412610 PMCID: PMC6226186 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2018] [Accepted: 10/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
This study investigated whether visual stimuli (FACES vs. CARS) combined with the presence of maternal scent can influence suck patterning in healthy infants. Fifteen healthy full-term infants (six months and younger) were exposed to their mother’s scent during a visual preference paradigm consisting of FACES vs. CARS stimuli while sucking on a custom research pacifier. Infants looked significantly longer to the FACES compared to CARS, p = .041. Repeated Measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for non-nutritive suck (NNS) bursts and visual stimuli (p = .001) with the largest differences evident between FACES and when the infant looked away from the visual stimuli (p = 0.008) as well as between FACES and CARS (p = 0.026). These preliminary findings suggest that infants have more suck attempts when looking at FACES in the presence of maternal scent thereby indicating potent links between visual preference and suck behavior.
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16
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Parental negative emotions are related to behavioral and pupillary correlates of infants’ attention to facial expressions of emotion. Infant Behav Dev 2018; 53:101-111. [DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2018.07.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2018] [Revised: 07/21/2018] [Accepted: 07/29/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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17
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Reynolds GD, Roth KC. The Development of Attentional Biases for Faces in Infancy: A Developmental Systems Perspective. Front Psychol 2018; 9:222. [PMID: 29541043 PMCID: PMC5835799 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2017] [Accepted: 02/09/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
We present an integrative review of research and theory on major factors involved in the early development of attentional biases to faces. Research utilizing behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuroscience measures with infant participants as well as comparative research with animal subjects are reviewed. We begin with coverage of research demonstrating the presence of an attentional bias for faces shortly after birth, such as newborn infants' visual preference for face-like over non-face stimuli. The role of experience and the process of perceptual narrowing in face processing are examined as infants begin to demonstrate enhanced behavioral and neural responsiveness to mother over stranger, female over male, own- over other-race, and native over non-native faces. Next, we cover research on developmental change in infants' neural responsiveness to faces in multimodal contexts, such as audiovisual speech. We also explore the potential influence of arousal and attention on early perceptual preferences for faces. Lastly, the potential influence of the development of attention systems in the brain on social-cognitive processing is discussed. In conclusion, we interpret the findings under the framework of Developmental Systems Theory, emphasizing the combined and distributed influence of several factors, both internal (e.g., arousal, neural development) and external (e.g., early social experience) to the developing child, in the emergence of attentional biases that lead to enhanced responsiveness and processing of faces commonly encountered in the native environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Greg D. Reynolds
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States
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18
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Ellis AE, Xiao NG, Lee K, Oakes LM. Scanning of own- versus other-race faces in infants from racially diverse or homogenous communities. Dev Psychobiol 2017; 59:613-627. [PMID: 28577346 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2016] [Revised: 02/17/2017] [Accepted: 04/12/2017] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
We examined the role of community face experience on 6- and 8-month-old Caucasian infants' scanning of own- and other-race face scanning. We measured infants' proportional fixation time and scan path amplitudes as indices of face processing. Proportional fixation time to informationally rich face regions varied as a function of age and face race for infants living in a racially homogeneous community, whereas scan path amplitudes varied as a function of age and face race for infants living in a racially diverse community. In both communities 6-month-old infants did not show different responding to own- and other-race faces, whereas 8-month-old infants responded differently to own- and other-race faces. However, 8-month-old infants from the two communities showed different patterns of cross-race face scanning. Therefore, experience in the community beyond the home appears to contribute to the development of differential scanning of own- versus other-race faces between 6 and 8 months of age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ann E Ellis
- Department of Psychology, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
| | - Naiqi G Xiao
- Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Kang Lee
- Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Lisa M Oakes
- Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, UC Davis, Davis, California
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Simpson EA, Jakobsen KV, Damon F, Suomi SJ, Ferrari PF, Paukner A. Face Detection and the Development of Own-Species Bias in Infant Macaques. Child Dev 2017; 88:103-113. [PMID: 27223687 PMCID: PMC5123966 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12565] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
In visually complex environments, numerous items compete for attention. Infants may exhibit attentional efficiency-privileged detection, attention capture, and holding-for face-like stimuli. However, it remains unknown when these biases develop and what role, if any, experience plays in this emerging skill. Here, nursery-reared infant macaques' (Macaca mulatta; n = 10) attention to faces in 10-item arrays of nonfaces was measured using eye tracking. With limited face experience, 3-week-old monkeys were more likely to detect faces and looked longer at faces compared to nonfaces, suggesting a robust face detection system. By 3 months, after peer exposure, infants looked faster to conspecific faces but not heterospecific faces, suggesting an own-species bias in face attention capture, consistent with perceptual attunement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A. Simpson
- Social Cognition Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, 33124 USA
| | - Krisztina V. Jakobsen
- Cognitive Development Laboratory, Department of Psychology, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, 22807 USA
| | - Fabrice Damon
- Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
| | - Stephen J. Suomi
- Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Poolesville, Maryland, 20837 USA
| | - Pier F. Ferrari
- Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Università di Parma, Parma, 4300 Italy
| | - Annika Paukner
- Laboratory of Comparative Ethology, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Poolesville, Maryland, 20837 USA
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20
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Chien SHL, Wang JF, Huang TR. Developing the Own-Race Advantage in 4-, 6-, and 9-Month-Old Taiwanese Infants: A Perceptual Learning Perspective. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1606. [PMID: 27807427 PMCID: PMC5069286 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01606] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2016] [Accepted: 10/03/2016] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous infant studies on the other-race effect have favored the perceptual narrowing view, or declined sensitivities to rarely exposed other-race faces. Here we wish to provide an alternative possibility, perceptual learning, manifested by improved sensitivity for frequently exposed own-race faces in the first year of life. Using the familiarization/visual-paired comparison paradigm, we presented 4-, 6-, and 9-month-old Taiwanese infants with oval-cropped Taiwanese, Caucasian, Filipino faces, and each with three different manipulations of increasing task difficulty (i.e., change identity, change eyes, and widen eye spacing). An adult experiment was first conducted to verify the task difficulty. Our results showed that, with oval-cropped faces, the 4 month-old infants could only discriminate Taiwanese "change identity" condition and not any others, suggesting an early own-race advantage at 4 months. The 6 month-old infants demonstrated novelty preferences in both Taiwanese and Caucasian "change identity" conditions, and proceeded to the Taiwanese "change eyes" condition. The 9-month-old infants demonstrated novelty preferences in the "change identity" condition of all three ethnic faces. They also passed the Taiwanese "change eyes" condition but could not extend this refined ability of detecting a change in the eyes for the Caucasian or Philippine faces. Taken together, we interpret the pattern of results as evidence supporting perceptual learning during the first year: the ability to discriminate own-race faces emerges at 4 months and continues to refine, while the ability to discriminate other-race faces emerges between 6 and 9 months and retains at 9 months. Additionally, the discrepancies in the face stimuli and methods between studies advocating the narrowing view and those supporting the learning view were discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarina Hui-Lin Chien
- Graduate Institute of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, China Medical UniversityTaichung, Taiwan
| | - Jing-Fong Wang
- Graduate Institute of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, China Medical UniversityTaichung, Taiwan
| | - Tsung-Ren Huang
- Department of Psychology, National Taiwan UniversityTaipei, Taiwan
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Markant J, Oakes LM, Amso D. Visual selective attention biases contribute to the other-race effect among 9-month-old infants. Dev Psychobiol 2016; 58:355-65. [PMID: 26486228 PMCID: PMC4865249 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 55] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2015] [Accepted: 10/10/2015] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
During the first year of life, infants maintain their ability to discriminate faces from their own race but become less able to differentiate other-race faces. Though this is likely due to daily experience with own-race faces, the mechanisms linking repeated exposure to optimal face processing remain unclear. One possibility is that frequent experience with own-race faces generates a selective attention bias to these faces. Selective attention elicits enhancement of attended information and suppression of distraction to improve visual processing of attended objects. Thus attention biases to own-race faces may boost processing and discrimination of these faces relative to other-race faces. We used a spatial cueing task to bias attention to own- or other-race faces among Caucasian 9-month-old infants. Infants discriminated faces in the focus of the attention bias, regardless of race, indicating that infants remained sensitive to differences among other-race faces. Instead, efficacy of face discrimination reflected the extent of attention engagement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie Markant
- Department of Psychology, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.
| | - Lisa M Oakes
- The Center for Mind and Brain and Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA
| | - Dima Amso
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI
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22
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Shutts K. Young Children's Preferences: Gender, Race, and Social Status. CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES 2015. [DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12154] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
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23
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Simion F, Giorgio ED. Face perception and processing in early infancy: inborn predispositions and developmental changes. Front Psychol 2015; 6:969. [PMID: 26217285 PMCID: PMC4496551 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00969] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2015] [Accepted: 06/28/2015] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
From birth it is critical for our survival to identify social agents and conspecifics. Among others stimuli, faces provide the required information. The present paper will review the mechanisms subserving face detection and face recognition, respectively, over development. In addition, the emergence of the functional and neural specialization for face processing as an experience-dependent process will be documented. Overall, the present work highlights the importance of both inborn predispositions and the exposure to certain experiences, shortly after birth, to drive the system to become functionally specialized to process faces in the first months of life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Simion
- Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Elisa Di Giorgio
- CIMeC, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
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24
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Jayaraman S, Fausey CM, Smith LB. The Faces in Infant-Perspective Scenes Change over the First Year of Life. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0123780. [PMID: 26016988 PMCID: PMC4445910 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123780] [Citation(s) in RCA: 83] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2014] [Accepted: 03/08/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Mature face perception has its origins in the face experiences of infants. However, little is known about the basic statistics of faces in early visual environments. We used head cameras to capture and analyze over 72,000 infant-perspective scenes from 22 infants aged 1-11 months as they engaged in daily activities. The frequency of faces in these scenes declined markedly with age: for the youngest infants, faces were present 15 minutes in every waking hour but only 5 minutes for the oldest infants. In general, the available faces were well characterized by three properties: (1) they belonged to relatively few individuals; (2) they were close and visually large; and (3) they presented views showing both eyes. These three properties most strongly characterized the face corpora of our youngest infants and constitute environmental constraints on the early development of the visual system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Swapnaa Jayaraman
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Caitlin M. Fausey
- Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States of America
| | - Linda B. Smith
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America
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25
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Johnson MH, Senju A, Tomalski P. The two-process theory of face processing: modifications based on two decades of data from infants and adults. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2014; 50:169-79. [PMID: 25454353 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 172] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2014] [Revised: 08/24/2014] [Accepted: 10/12/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Johnson and Morton (1991. Biology and Cognitive Development: The Case of Face Recognition. Blackwell, Oxford) used Gabriel Horn's work on the filial imprinting model to inspire a two-process theory of the development of face processing in humans. In this paper we review evidence accrued over the past two decades from infants and adults, and from other primates, that informs this two-process model. While work with newborns and infants has been broadly consistent with predictions from the model, further refinements and questions have been raised. With regard to adults, we discuss more recent evidence on the extension of the model to eye contact detection, and to subcortical face processing, reviewing functional imaging and patient studies. We conclude with discussion of outstanding caveats and future directions of research in this field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark H Johnson
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK.
| | - Atsushi Senju
- Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Przemyslaw Tomalski
- Neurocognitive Development Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Stawki 5/7, 00-183 Warsaw, Poland
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26
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27
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Flom R. Perceptual narrowing: retrospect and prospect. Dev Psychobiol 2014; 56:1442-53. [PMID: 25042698 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2013] [Accepted: 06/15/2014] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Research is reviewed demonstrating perceptual narrowing across a variety of domains. Research is also reviewed showing that the temporal window of perceptual narrowing can be extended and, in some cases, perceptual narrowing can be reversed. Research is also reviewed highlighting the neurophysiological correlates of perceptual narrowing as well as some of the individual neurophysiological differences associated with perceptual narrowing. Various methodological issues associated with perceptual narrowing are also discussed. The broader purpose of this paper, however, is to argue that the term perceptual narrowing fails to capture the dynamic nature of this perceptual process. Finally, it is argued that just as other concepts associated with experience and development are refined and modified as new evidence emerges, likewise we need to evaluate and refine how we conceptualize perceptual narrowing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ross Flom
- Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, 1044 SWKT, Provo, UT, 84602.
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28
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Marie C, Trainor LJ. Early development of polyphonic sound encoding and the high voice superiority effect. Neuropsychologia 2014; 57:50-8. [PMID: 24613759 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.02.023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 43] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2013] [Revised: 02/25/2014] [Accepted: 02/26/2014] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that when two streams of pitched tones are presented simultaneously, adults process each stream in a separate memory trace, as reflected by mismatch negativity (MMN), a component of the event-related potential (ERP). Furthermore, a superior encoding of the higher tone or voice in polyphonic sounds has been found for 7-month-old infants and both musician and non-musician adults in terms of a larger amplitude MMN in response to pitch deviant stimuli in the higher than the lower voice. These results, in conjunction with modeling work, suggest that the high voice superiority effect might originate in characteristics of the peripheral auditory system. If this is the case, the high voice superiority effect should be present in infants younger than 7 months. In the present study we tested 3-month-old infants as there is no evidence at this age of perceptual narrowing or specialization of musical processing according to the pitch or rhythmic structure of music experienced in the infant׳s environment. We presented two simultaneous streams of tones (high and low) with 50% of trials modified by 1 semitone (up or down), either on the higher or the lower tone, leaving 50% standard trials. Results indicate that like the 7-month-olds, 3-month-old infants process each tone in a separate memory trace and show greater saliency for the higher tone. Although MMN was smaller and later in both voices for the group of sixteen 3-month-olds compared to the group of sixteen 7-month-olds, the size of the difference in MMN for the high compared to low voice was similar across ages. These results support the hypothesis of an innate peripheral origin of the high voice superiority effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Céline Marie
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1; McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Laurel J Trainor
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4K1; McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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29
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Xiao WS, Quinn PC, Pascalis O, Lee K. Own- and other-race face scanning in infants: implications for perceptual narrowing. Dev Psychobiol 2014; 56:262-73. [PMID: 24415549 DOI: 10.1002/dev.21196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2013] [Accepted: 12/12/2013] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
The present study investigated how 6- and 9-month-old Caucasian infants scan Caucasian and Chinese dynamic faces using eye-tracking methodology. Analyses of looking times revealed that with increased age, infants decreased their looking time to other-race noses, while maintaining their looking time for own-race noses. From 6 to 9 months, infants increased their looking time for the eyes of both races of faces. Analyses of scan paths showed that infants were no more likely to shift their fixation between the eyes of own-race faces than other-race faces. Similarity between participants' scan paths suggested that facial information was collected more efficiently for own- versus other-race faces at 9 months of age. Combined with previous eye-tracking studies of infants' face scanning (Liu et al. [2011] Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108, 180-189; Wheeler et al. [2011] PLoS ONE, 6, e18621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018621; Xiao et al. [2013] International Journal of Behavioral Development, 37, 100-105), the findings are interpreted in the context of perceptual narrowing and suggest differential contributions of visual experience, facial physiognomy, and culture in accounting for similarity and difference in infants scanning of own- and other-race faces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wen S Xiao
- Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, 45 Walmer Road, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5R 2X2
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30
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Dobkins KR, Harms R. The face inversion effect in infants is driven by high, and not low, spatial frequencies. J Vis 2014; 14:1. [PMID: 24385345 PMCID: PMC3880109 DOI: 10.1167/14.1.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2012] [Accepted: 10/13/2013] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
To investigate the mechanisms underlying development of upright face preferences in infants, the current study measured inversion effects for faces that were spatial frequency (SF) filtered, into low SF and high SF, with the notion that different SFs are analyzed by different visual mechanisms. For comparison to faces, we used object stimuli that consisted of pictures of strollers. In 4 month olds, 8 month olds, and adults, we measured the strength of the selective face inversion effect (sFIE), operationally defined as an upright over inverted looking preference that is greater for faces than objects. In Study 1, we employed unfiltered stimuli, and found a clear sFIE in both infants and adults. To determine what drove this sFIE, in Study 2, the sFIE was measured for low-SF and high-SF stimuli, with all stimuli being equated for visibility. For adults, the sFIE was equally strong for low-SF and high-SF stimuli. A different pattern was seen for infants. Infants exhibited a significantly greater sFIE for high-SF, than for low-SF, stimuli (and only for high SF was the sFIE significant). In fact, the strength of infants' upright face preference for high-SF stimuli was indistinguishable from that observed for unfiltered faces, indicating that in natural (unfiltered) stimuli, high SFs are sufficient to account for infants' upright face preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen R. Dobkins
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
| | - Rachael Harms
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
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31
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Raczaszek-Leonardi J, Nomikou I, Rohlfing KJ. Young Children’s Dialogical Actions: The Beginnings of Purposeful Intersubjectivity. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2013. [DOI: 10.1109/tamd.2013.2273258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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32
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Durand K, Baudouin JY, Lewkowicz DJ, Goubet N, Schaal B. Eye-catching odors: olfaction elicits sustained gazing to faces and eyes in 4-month-old infants. PLoS One 2013; 8:e70677. [PMID: 24015175 PMCID: PMC3756010 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070677] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2013] [Accepted: 06/21/2013] [Indexed: 12/01/2022] Open
Abstract
This study investigated whether an odor can affect infants' attention to visually presented objects and whether it can selectively direct visual gaze at visual targets as a function of their meaning. Four-month-old infants (n = 48) were exposed to their mother's body odors while their visual exploration was recorded with an eye-movement tracking system. Two groups of infants, who were assigned to either an odor condition or a control condition, looked at a scene composed of still pictures of faces and cars. As expected, infants looked longer at the faces than at the cars but this spontaneous preference for faces was significantly enhanced in presence of the odor. As expected also, when looking at the face, the infants looked longer at the eyes than at any other facial regions, but, again, they looked at the eyes significantly longer in the presence of the odor. Thus, 4-month-old infants are sensitive to the contextual effects of odors while looking at faces. This suggests that early social attention to faces is mediated by visual as well as non-visual cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karine Durand
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Group, Center for Smell, Taste and Food Science, Dijon, France
| | - Jean-Yves Baudouin
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Group, Center for Smell, Taste and Food Science, Dijon, France
- Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
| | - David J. Lewkowicz
- Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, United States of America
| | - Nathalie Goubet
- Department of Psychology, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America
| | - Benoist Schaal
- Developmental Ethology and Cognitive Psychology Group, Center for Smell, Taste and Food Science, Dijon, France
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33
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Dundas E, Gastgeb H, Strauss MS. Left visual field biases when infants process faces: a comparison of infants at high- and low-risk for autism spectrum disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 2013; 42:2659-68. [PMID: 22527700 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-012-1523-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
While it is well-known that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties processing faces, very little is known about the origins of these deficits. The current study focused on 6- and 11-month-old infants who were at either high-risk (n = 43) or low-risk (n = 31) for developing ASD based on having a sibling already diagnosed with the disorder. Eye-tracking data were collected while the infants viewed color photographs of faces. Similar to previous studies with both typically developing adults and infants, low-risk infants demonstrated a preference for looking at the left side of the face (known as a left visual field bias) that emerged by 11 months of age. In contrast, high-risk infants did not demonstrate a left visual field bias at either age. Comparisons of the amount of attention given to the eye versus mouth regions indicated no differences between the two risk groups.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Dundas
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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34
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The development of facial gender categorization in individuals with and without autism: the impact of typicality. J Autism Dev Disord 2013; 42:1847-55. [PMID: 22200937 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-011-1428-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Abstract
While much research has examined the development of facial recognition abilities, less is known about the ability of individuals with and without autism to categorize facial gender. The current study tested gender categorization abilities in high-functioning children (5-7 and 8-12 years), adolescents (13-17 years), and adults (18-53 years) with autism and matched controls. Naturalistic videos depicted faces that were either typical or less typical of each gender. Both groups improved in their performance across development. However, control children reached expertise that was similar to control adults by 8-12 years; whereas, adults with autism never reached this level of expertise, particularly with less typical gender faces. Results suggest that individuals with autism employ different face processing mechanisms than typically developing individuals.
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35
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Fair J, Flom R, Jones J, Martin J. Perceptual Learning: 12-Month-Olds’ Discrimination of Monkey Faces. Child Dev 2012; 83:1996-2006. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01814.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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36
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Abstract
During the first year of life, infants' face recognition abilities are subject to 'perceptual narrowing', the end result of which is that observers lose the ability to distinguish previously discriminable faces (e.g. other-race faces) from one another. Perceptual narrowing has been reported for faces of different species and different races, in developing humans and primates. Though the phenomenon is highly robust and replicable, there have been few efforts to model the emergence of perceptual narrowing as a function of the accumulation of experience with faces during infancy. The goal of the current study is to examine how perceptual narrowing might manifest as statistical estimation in 'face-space', a geometric framework for describing face recognition that has been successfully applied to adult face perception. Here, I use a computer vision algorithm for Bayesian face recognition to study how the acquisition of experience in face-space and the presence of race categories affect performance for own and other-race faces. Perceptual narrowing follows from the establishment of distinct race categories, suggesting that the acquisition of category boundaries for race is a key computational mechanism in developing face expertise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Balas
- Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USA.
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37
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Parr LA, Taubert J, Little AC, Hancock PJB. The organization of conspecific face space in nonhuman primates. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2012; 65:2411-34. [PMID: 22670823 PMCID: PMC3544001 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2012.693110] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Humans and chimpanzees demonstrate numerous cognitive specializations for processing faces, but comparative studies with monkeys suggest that these may be the result of recent evolutionary adaptations. The present study utilized the novel approach of face space, a powerful theoretical framework used to understand the representation of face identity in humans, to further explore species differences in face processing. According to the theory, faces are represented by vectors in a multidimensional space, the centre of which is defined by an average face. Each dimension codes features important for describing a face's identity, and vector length codes the feature's distinctiveness. Chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys discriminated male and female conspecifics' faces, rated by humans for their distinctiveness, using a computerized task. Multidimensional scaling analyses showed that the organization of face space was similar between humans and chimpanzees. Distinctive faces had the longest vectors and were the easiest for chimpanzees to discriminate. In contrast, distinctiveness did not correlate with the performance of rhesus monkeys. The feature dimensions for each species' face space were visualized and described using morphing techniques. These results confirm species differences in the perceptual representation of conspecific faces, which are discussed within an evolutionary framework.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lisa A Parr
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.
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38
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Brief daily exposures to Asian females reverses perceptual narrowing for Asian faces in Caucasian infants. J Exp Child Psychol 2012; 112:484-95. [PMID: 22625845 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2012.04.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 112] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2012] [Revised: 04/06/2012] [Accepted: 04/07/2012] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Perceptual narrowing in the visual, auditory, and multisensory domains has its developmental origins during infancy. The current study shows that experimentally induced experience can reverse the effects of perceptual narrowing on infants' visual recognition memory of other-race faces. Caucasian 8- to 10-month-olds who could not discriminate between novel and familiarized Asian faces at the beginning of testing were given brief daily experience with Asian female faces in the experimental condition and Caucasian female faces in the control condition. At the end of 3 weeks, only infants who received daily experience with Asian females showed above-chance recognition of novel Asian female and male faces. Furthermore, infants in the experimental condition showed greater efficiency in learning novel Asian females compared with infants in the control condition. Thus, visual experience with a novel stimulus category can reverse the effects of perceptual narrowing during infancy via improved stimulus recognition and encoding.
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40
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Abstract
The visual world of adults consists of objects at various distances, partly occluding one another, substantial and stable across space and time. The visual world of young infants, in contrast, is often fragmented and unstable, consisting not of coherent objects but rather surfaces that move in unpredictable ways. Evidence from computational modeling and from experiments with human infants highlights three kinds of learning that contribute to infants' knowledge of the visual world: learning via association, learning via active assembly, and learning via visual-manual exploration. Infants acquire knowledge by observing objects move in and out of sight, forming associations of these different views. In addition, the infant's own self-produced behavior-oculomotor patterns and manual experience, in particular-are important means by which infants discover and construct their visual world.
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