Hayden Angela, Bhatt Ramesh S, Reed Andrea, Corbly Christine R, Joseph Jane E
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2007 Jun;97(2):85-98. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2007.01.004. Epub 2007 Mar 6.
Sensitivity to second-order relational information (i.e., spatial relations among features such as the distance between eyes) is a vital part of achieving expertise with face processing. Prior research is unclear on whether infants are sensitive to second-order differences seen in typical human populations. In the current experiments, we examined whether infants are sensitive to changes in the space between the eyes and between the nose and the mouth that are within the normal range of variability in Caucasian female faces. In Experiment 1, 7-month-olds detected these changes in second-order relational information. Experiment 2 extended this finding to 5-month-olds and also found that infants detect second-order relations in upright faces but not in inverted faces, thereby exhibiting an inversion effect that has been considered to be a hallmark of second-order relational processing during adulthood. These results suggest that infants as young as 5 months are sensitive to second-order relational changes that are within the normal range of human variability. They also indicate that at least rudimentary aspects of face processing expertise are available early in life.
对二阶关系信息（即诸如两眼之间距离等特征之间的空间关系）的敏感性是在面部处理方面达到专业水平的重要组成部分。先前的研究尚不清楚婴儿是否对典型人群中可见的二阶差异敏感。在当前的实验中，我们研究了婴儿是否对白人女性面部正常变异范围内两眼之间以及鼻子和嘴巴之间的空间变化敏感。在实验1中，7个月大的婴儿能够检测到这些二阶关系信息的变化。实验2将这一发现扩展到了5个月大的婴儿，并且还发现婴儿能够检测直立面孔中的二阶关系，但不能检测倒置面孔中的二阶关系，从而表现出一种倒置效应，这种效应被认为是成年期二阶关系处理的一个标志。这些结果表明，5个月大的婴儿对人类变异正常范围内的二阶关系变化敏感。它们还表明，至少面部处理专业知识的基本方面在生命早期就已具备。
