title: Fitting the child's mind to the world: adaptive norm-based coding of facial identity in 8-year-olds.
abstract: In adults, facial identity is coded by opponent processes relative to an average face or norm, as evidenced by the face identity aftereffect: adapting to a face biases perception towards the opposite identity, so that a previously neutral face (e.g. the average) resembles the identity of the computationally opposite face. We investigated whether children as young as 8 use adaptive norm-based coding to represent faces, a question of interest because 8-year-olds are less accurate than adults at recognizing faces and do not show the adult neural markers of face expertise. We found comparable face identity aftereffects in 8-year-olds and adults: perception of identity in both groups shifted in the direction predicted by norm-based coding. This finding suggests that, by 8 years of age, the adaptive computational mechanisms used to code facial identity are like those of adults and hence that children's immaturities in face processing arise from another source.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Canada.
authors.forename: Mayu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: Daphne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maurer
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jeffery
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pellicano
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rhodes
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005366:Figural Aftereffect / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology