Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, School of Psychology, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2010 Aug;106(4):193-207. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2010.03.005. Epub 2010 May 6.
Previous research has suggested that a mid-band of spatial frequencies is critical to face recognition in adults, but few studies have explored the development of this bias in children. We present a paradigm adapted from the adult literature to test spatial frequency biases throughout development. Faces were presented on a screen with particular spatial frequencies blocked out by noise masks. A mid-band bias was found in adults and 9- and 10-year-olds for upright faces but not for inverted faces, suggesting a face-sensitive effect. However, 7- and 8-year-olds did not demonstrate the mid-band bias for upright faces but rather processed upright and inverted faces similarly. This suggests that specialization toward the mid-band for upright face recognition develops gradually during childhood and may relate to an advanced level of face expertise.
先前的研究表明，中频段的空间频率对于成年人的面部识别至关重要，但很少有研究探讨这种偏向在儿童中的发展。我们提出了一种从成人文献中改编的范式，以测试整个发展过程中的空间频率偏向。在屏幕上呈现面孔，特定的空间频率被噪声掩蔽块遮挡。在成年人以及 9 岁和 10 岁的儿童中发现了中频段偏向，但对于倒置的面孔则没有，这表明存在面孔敏感性效应。然而，7 岁和 8 岁的儿童对于直立面孔并没有表现出中频段偏向，而是对面部的直立和倒置呈现出相似的处理方式。这表明，对于直立面孔识别的中频段偏向是在儿童时期逐渐发展起来的，可能与先进的面孔专业知识水平有关。
