Dipartimento di Psicologia, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milano, Italy.
Dev Psychobiol. 2014 Feb;56(2):238-48. doi: 10.1002/dev.21191. Epub 2013 Dec 20.
Recent data demonstrate a perceptual processing advantage for adult faces in both adults and young children, suggesting that face representation is shaped by visual experience accumulated with different face-age groups. As for species and race, this age bias may emerge during the first year of life as part of the general process of perceptual narrowing, given the extensive amount of social and perceptual experience accumulated with caregivers and/or other adult individuals. Using infant-controlled habituation and visual-paired comparison at test, two experiments were carried out to examine 3- and 9-month-olds' ability to discriminate within adult and infant faces. Results showed that, when they are provided with adequate time to visually compare the stimuli during test trials (Experiment 2), 3-month-olds exhibit above-chance discrimination of adult and infant faces. Instead, 9-month-olds discriminate adult faces but not infant faces (Experiments 1 and 2). Results provide the first evidence of age-related face processing biases in infancy, and show that by 9 months face representations tune to adult human faces.
最近的数据表明，成年人和幼儿在处理成人面孔时都具有感知优势，这表明面孔的表现形式是由与不同年龄组面孔积累的视觉经验塑造的。至于物种和种族，鉴于与照顾者和/或其他成年人积累了大量的社会和感知经验，这种年龄偏见可能会在生命的第一年出现，作为感知范围缩小的一般过程的一部分。本研究采用婴儿控制习惯化和测试中的视觉配对比较，进行了两项实验来检验 3 个月大和 9 个月大的婴儿区分成人和婴儿面孔的能力。结果表明，当他们在测试过程中（实验 2）有足够的时间进行视觉比较时，3 个月大的婴儿能够对成人和婴儿的面孔进行高于机会的区分。相反，9 个月大的婴儿可以区分成人的面孔，但不能区分婴儿的面孔（实验 1 和实验 2）。结果提供了婴儿期与年龄相关的面孔处理偏见的第一个证据，并表明到 9 个月大时，面孔代表已经适应了成人的面孔。
