Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Dev Sci. 2011 Sep;14(5):1107-18. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01057.x. Epub 2011 Jun 7.
To examine the development of recognition memory in primary-school children, 36 healthy younger children (8-9 years old) and 36 healthy older children (11-12 years old) participated in an ERP study with an extended continuous face recognition task (Study 1). Each face of a series of 30 faces was shown randomly six times interspersed with distracter faces. The children were required to make old vs. new decisions. Older children responded faster than younger children, but younger children exhibited a steeper decrease in latencies across the five repetitions. Older children exhibited better accuracy for new faces, but there were no age differences in recognition accuracy for repeated faces. For the N2, N400 and late positive complex (LPC), we analyzed the old/new effects (repetition 1 vs. new presentation) and the extended repetition effects (repetitions 1 through 5). Compared to older children, younger children exhibited larger frontocentral N2 and N400 old/new effects. For extended face repetitions, negativity of the N2 and N400 decreased in a linear fashion in both age groups. For the LPC, an ERP component thought to reflect recollection, no significant old/new or extended repetition effects were found. Employing the same face recognition paradigm in 20 adults (Study 2), we found a significant N400 old/new effect at lateral frontal sites and a significant LPC repetition effect at parietal sites, with LPC amplitudes increasing linearly with the number of repetitions. This study clearly demonstrates differential developmental courses for the N400 and LPC pertaining to recognition memory for faces. It is concluded that face recognition in children is mediated by early and probably more automatic than conscious recognition processes. In adults, the LPC extended repetition effect indicates that adult face recognition memory is related to a conscious and graded recollection process rather than to an automatic recognition process.
为了研究小学生的再认记忆发展，36 名健康的年幼儿童（8-9 岁）和 36 名健康的年长儿童（11-12 岁）参加了一项扩展的连续面孔识别任务的 ERP 研究（研究 1）。在每个系列的 30 张面孔中，每张面孔随机呈现 6 次，中间穿插干扰面孔。要求孩子们做出旧与新的判断。年长的孩子比年幼的孩子反应更快，但年幼的孩子在 5 次重复中潜伏期的下降幅度更大。年长的孩子对新面孔的准确性更高，但对重复面孔的识别准确性没有年龄差异。对于 N2、N400 和晚期正性复合波（LPC），我们分析了旧/新效应（重复 1 与新呈现）和扩展重复效应（重复 1 到 5）。与年长的孩子相比，年幼的孩子在前额中央区域的 N2 和 N400 旧/新效应更大。对于扩展的面孔重复，N2 和 N400 的负性在两个年龄组中以线性方式降低。对于 LPC，这是一个被认为反映回忆的 ERP 成分，没有发现显著的旧/新或扩展重复效应。在 20 名成年人中采用相同的面孔识别范式（研究 2），我们发现了侧额部位置的 N400 旧/新效应和顶区位置的 LPC 重复效应，LPC 振幅随着重复次数的增加呈线性增加。这项研究清楚地表明，与面孔再认记忆相关的 N400 和 LPC 具有不同的发展轨迹。结论是，儿童的面孔识别是由早期的、可能是无意识的而不是有意识的识别过程介导的。在成年人中，LPC 扩展重复效应表明，成人的面孔识别记忆与有意识的、逐渐增加的回忆过程有关，而不是与自动识别过程有关。
