Gudrun Schwarzer and Helmut Leder
(Editors)

The Development of
Face Processing

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

is now available via the Library of Congress Marc Database under the

LC Control Number 2003104140

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Schwarzer, Gudrun

The development of face processing / Gudrun Schwarzer, Helmut Leder.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-61334-264-0

1. Face perception. I. Leder, Helmut II. Title.

BF242.S37 2003            153.7'5            C2003-901952-7

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ISBN 978-1-61334-264-0

Table of Contents

Contributors

Foreword

Preface

Part I: Visual Cognitive Abilities in Infancy

1  Development of Fragmented Versus Holistic Object Perception
Scott P. Johnson

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Development of Perception of Object Unity

1.3 Infants’ Sensitivity to Visual Information Specifying Unity

1.4 Development of Perception of Trajectory Continuity

1.5 Mechanisms of Development

1.6 Development of Object Perception and Development of Face Perception

1.7 Conclusion

References

2  Infants’ Preference for Texture-Defined Targets of Different Saliency:
Evidence for Local Processing
Ruxandra Sireteanu, Irmgard Encke, and Iris Bachert

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Infants’ Preference for Targets of Different Saliency (Experiment I)

2.3 The Role of the Experimental Set-Up (Experiment II)

2.4 General Discussion

References

3  Development of Depth and Object Perception in Infancy
Michael Kavšek

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Kinematic Depth and Object Perception

3.3 Binocular Depth and Object Perception

3.4 Oculomotor Depth and Object Perception: Convergence and Accommodation

3.5 Pictorial Depth and Object Perception

References

Part II: Face Processing from Infancy to Adulthood

4  Face Processing During the First Decade of Life
Gudrun Schwarzer, Nicola Zauner, and Monika Korell

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Face Processing in Infancy

4.3 Face Processing in Childhood

4.4 Conclusion

References

5  Development of Face Processing in Early Adolescence
Helmut Leder, Gudrun Schwarzer, and Steve Langton

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Social Age Effects in Face Recognition: Study 1

5.3 Development of Configural Encoding

5.4 Conclusion

References

6  Expert Face Processing: Specialization and Constraints
Adrian Schwaninger, Claus-Christian Carbon, and Helmut Leder

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Information Contained in Faces

6.3 Mechanisms of Face Processing in Adults

6.4 An Integrative View of Face Recognition

References

Part III: Applied Research on Face Processing in the Course of Development

7  A Framework for the Study and Treatment of Face Processing Deficits in Autism
James W. Tanaka, Samantha Lincoln, and Logan Hegg

7.1 Introduction

7.2 A Hierarchical Model for Face Processing

7.3 Let’s Face It!: A Computer-Based Intervention for Developing Face Expertise

7.4 Chapter Summary

References

8  Face Processing and Person Processing: Are They Both the Same?
Katja Seitz

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Previous Comparisons of Information Processing with Face and Person Stimuli

8.3 The Developmental Course of Face and Person Recognition Performance

8.4 Development of Modes of Face and Person Processing

8.5 Conclusion

References

9  Remembering Faces in Social Contexts
Claudia M. Roebers

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Simultaneous Presentation of the Photos: Target-Present Line-Ups

9.3 Simultaneous Presentation of the Photos: Target-Absent Line-Ups

9.4 Presentation Mode: Simultaneous Versus Sequential Line-Ups

9.5 Neutral Versus Social Contexts

References

Contributors

Iris Bachert
Department of Neurophysiology
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
Deutschordenstr. 46
D-60528 Frankfurt/M.
Germany
E-mail: bachert@mpih-frankfurt.mpg.de

Claus-Christian Carbon
Department of Psychology
Free University of Berlin
Habelschwerdter Allee 45
D-14195 Berlin
Germany
E-mail: ccc@experimental-psychology.de

Irmgard Encke
Department of Neurophysiology
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
Deutschordenstr. 46
D-60528 Frankfurt/M.
Germany

Logan Hegg
Department of Psychology
Severance Lab
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH 44074
USA
E-mail: logan.hegg@oberlin.edu

Scott P. Johnson
Department of Psychology
Uris Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
USA
E-mail: sj75@cornell.edu

Michael Kavšek
University of Bonn
Department of Psychology
Römerstr. 164
D-53117 Bonn
Germany
E-mail: kavsek@uni-bonn.de

Monika Korell
Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratory of the
Max Planck Society
Spemannstr. 34
D-72076 Tübingen
Germany
E-mail: monika.korell@tuebingen.mpg.de

Steve Langton
Department of Psychology
University of Stirling
FK9 4LA Stirling
Scotland
E-mail: srhl1@stirling.ac.uk

Helmut Leder
Department of Psychology
Free University of Berlin
Habelschwerdter Allee 45
D-14195 Berlin
Germany
E-mail: leder@experimental-psychology.de

Samantha Lincoln
Department of Psychology
Severance Lab
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH 44074
USA
E-mail: samantha.lincoln@oberlin.edu

Claudia M. Roebers
University of Würzburg
Department of Psychology IV
Röntgenring 10
D-97070 Würzburg
Germany
E-mail: roebers@psychologie.uniwuerzburg.de

Adrian Schwaninger
Max Planck Institute for Biological
Cybernetics
Spemannstr. 38
D-72076 Tübingen
Germany
E-mail: adrian.schwaninger@tuebingen.mpg.de

Gudrun Schwarzer
Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratory of the
Max Planck Society
Spemannstr. 34
D-72076 Tübingen
Germany
E-mail: gudrun.schwarzer@tuebingen.mpg.de

Katja Seitz
Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
Department of Psychology
Ostenstr. 26-28
D-85072 Eichstätt
Germany
E-mail: katja.seitz@ku-eichstaett.de

Ruxandra Sireteanu
Department of Biological Psychology
Institute for Psychology
Johann Wolfgang-Goethe-University
Frankfurt
Mertonstr. 17
D-60054 Frankfurt/M.
Germany
and
Department of Neurophysiology
Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
Deutschordenstr. 46
D-60528 Frankfurt/M.
Germany
E-mail: sireteanu@mpih-frankfurt.mpg.de

James W. Tanaka
Department of Psychology
Severance Lab
Oberlin College
Oberlin, OH 44074
USA
E-mail: tanaka@cs.oberlin.edu

Nicola Zauner
Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratory of the
Max Planck Society
Spemannstr. 34
D-72076 Tübingen
Germany
E-mail: nicola.zauner@tuebingen.mpg.de

Foreword

Interest in how faces are perceived and recognized has captured the imagination of philosophers and scientists for well over a century. Nowhere has this interest been more enthusiastic and long-lived than in the broad discipline of psychology. For example, cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists are interested in faces as they may represent a prototype of a stimulus that has been accorded special status by the brain. Evolutionary psychologists are interested in face recognition because it appears to be a “special” ability that has been selected for through evolutionary pressures and conserved across species. Finally, developmental psychologists have long been interested in face recognition because faces provide an early channel of communication (prior to the onset of language) between infant and caregiver. Moreover, because the ability to recognize faces occurs so early in the life span, it may represent a model system for teasing apart experiential vs. non-experiential contributions to a specific perceptual-cognitive system.

The chapters that comprise this book focus on two very fundamental questions: What factors are driving the development of face recognition from infancy through adulthood, and what processes underlie the continued elaboration and refinement of this ability through adulthood? These topics are addressed from a variety of perspectives that collectively sum to an excellent tutorial on the ontogeny and development of face processing. Given the continued interest in this skill by cognitive psychologists, and the newly established interest in face processing by developmental cognitive neuroscientists, this book could not be timelier.

Charles A. Nelson
University of Minnesota

Preface

The chapters in the present volume were originally papers presented at the international workshop on “The Development of Face Processing” at the Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tübingen, Germany. For the first time, researchers on the development of face processing and visual processing in general came together and presented and discussed their work in a productive environment. We would like to acknowledge the support for our work on this volume from the German Research Foundation and the Max Planck Society.

Over the past 10 years, there has been a growing interest in understanding face processing. One reason for this growth in interest may be that faces are very special. The human ability to differentiate among extremely large sets of faces and to recall specific faces is exceptional. Faces provide the main means of recognizing others and of communicating with others about feelings, moods, and intentions, thus lending faces a particularly important social function. For a couple of years, it has now been possible to study face processing by using methods that are widely accepted by experimental psychology.

One of the most fundamental questions in the field of face processing is: What are the roots of and what are the reasons for our impressive ability to process faces? How much is this ability innate and what do we learn as we develop? Understanding the ontogenetic origin of face processing as well as the processes that are responsible for age-specific changes in face processing will also provide important information on the nature of adults’ face processing. Interestingly, children and adults are equally fascinated by faces, and parents often spend considerable time in close facial contact with their babies wondering how much the babies understand of their visual surroundings. Also, as adults believe faces to be very special, we expect faces to be of special significance to babies too.

So far, previous research on the development of face processing can be characterized by three observations: (1) It mainly focuses on face perception in newborns and young infants. (2) There is very little knowledge available about developmental changes in the period between infancy and young adulthood. (3) Most importantly, research on the development of face processing is virtually unconnected to visual-perceptual development in general. The present volume extends the current state of research on all three of these points. Moreover, it connects studies on face processing in infancy with studies concerning the development of face processing and it builds a bridge between studies on face processing and studies on visual perceptual development. Researchers from the US as well as from Europe who have conducted pioneering work in these research areas and who anticipate future interest in this domain are contributors to this book.

The present volume consists of 3 sections which include 9 chapters. In the first three chapters Scott P. Johnson (Cornell University, Ithaca), Ruxandra Sireteanu, Irmgard Encke, and Iris Bachert (Max Planck Institute of Brain Science, Frankfurt/M.), and Michael Kavšek (University of Bonn) describe and explain fundamental visual cognitive abilities in infancy. Scott P. Johnson’s chapter focuses on the question of how and when infants process whole objects across space and time when occluded objects are presented. Ruxandra Sireteanu, Irmgard Encke, and Iris Bachert explain how infants segment and bind features to perceive homogeneous stimuli. The third chapter written by Michael Kavšek is concerned with the question of whether and if so, when infants are able to use depth and form cues to perceive objects. In sum, the three chapters give an overview over infants’ visual abilities that should be considered when face perception in infancy is examined.

The subsequent three chapters focus on research concerning the development of face processing. Gudrun Schwarzer, Nicola Zauner, and Monika Korell (Friedrich-Miescher-Laboratory of the Max Planck Society) describe face processing in infancy and subsequent development until the age of 10 years, concentrating mainly on the question of whether infants and older children process faces by orientating towards single facial features (analytic processing) or by orientating towards overall similarity of faces (holistic processing). In the next chapter, Helmut Leder (Free University of Berlin), Gudrun Schwarzer, and Steve Langton (University of Stirling) provide an overview of the development of face processing in 10-year-olds to 16-year-olds. The last chapter of this section focus on face processing in adults. Here Adrian Schwaninger (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics), Claus-Christian Carbon (Free University of Berlin), and Helmut Leder describe effects of expertise in adults’ face recognition.

The third section of the book is concerned with applied research of the development of face processing. James W. Tanaka, Samantha Lincoln, and Logan Hegg (Oberlin College) elucidate a framework for the study and treatment of face processing deficits in autistic children. The subsequent two chapters study the development of face processing in social contexts. Katja Seitz (University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) describes to what extent findings concerning the development of face processing can be transferred to the development of processing individual people. Claudia M. Roebers (University of Würzburg) investigates processes of face recognition in neutral, experimental contexts compared to social contexts such as the context of testimony.

Together, the chapters of the present book provide a reasonable foundation for understanding the changes in face processing during development but also stress where further research should be carried out to increase our knowledge in this area.

Gudrun Schwarzer and Helmut Leder

Part I:
Visual Cognitive Abilities in Infancy

1 Development of Fragmented Versus Holistic Object Perception

Scott P. Johnson

1.1 Introduction

Our environment is filled with objects at various distances, many of which are partly occluded by other objects that are closer to the observer. Our environment, that is, what we experience as we look around us, does not match the physical environment, because it consists of fragments of object surfaces, a set of colored and textured shapes that shifts with every change in eye or head position. Yet we do not experience our surroundings as fragmented, but instead we perceive it accurately, as composed of objects that are only partly revealed. The mature visual system, therefore, is adept at going beyond the information that is directly available, in imparting our everyday experience of the objects in our surroundings as coherent and unified across space and time, and with continual changes in viewpoint. This chapter will articulate a program of research that probes developmental origins of this perceptual skill in humans.

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