Do all kids look alike? Evidence for an other-age effect in adults.
The current study provides evidence for the existence of an other-age effect (OAE), analogous to the well-documented other-race effect. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that adults are better at recognizing adult faces compared with faces of newborns and children. Results from Experiment 3 indicate that the OAE obtained with child faces can be modulated by experience. Moreover, in each of the 3 experiments, differences in the magnitude of the observed face inversion effect for each age class of faces were taken to reflect a difference in the processing strategies used to recognize the faces of each age. Evidence from Experiment 3 indicates that these strategies can be tuned by experience. The data are discussed with reference to an experience-based framework for face recognition.
Kuefner
Dana
D
Department of Psychology, Universita degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy.
Macchi Cassia
Viola
V
Picozzi
Marta
M
Bricolo
Emanuela
E
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology