title: Four year-olds use norm-based coding for face identity.
abstract: Norm-based coding, in which faces are coded as deviations from an average face, is an efficient way of coding visual patterns that share a common structure and must be distinguished by subtle variations that define individuals. Adults and school-aged children use norm-based coding for face identity but it is not yet known if pre-school aged children also use norm-based coding. We reasoned that the transition to school could be critical in developing a norm-based system because school places new demands on children's face identification skills and substantially increases experience with faces. Consistent with this view, face identification performance improves steeply between ages 4 and 7. We used face identity aftereffects to test whether norm-based coding emerges between these ages. We found that 4 year-old children, like adults, showed larger face identity aftereffects for adaptors far from the average than for adaptors closer to the average, consistent with use of norm-based coding. We conclude that experience prior to age 4 is sufficient to develop a norm-based face-space and that failure to use norm-based coding cannot explain 4 year-old children's poor face identification skills.
authors: ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, The University of Western Australia, Australia. linda.jeffery@uwa.edu.au
authors: Linda
authors: L
authors: Jeffery
authors: Ainsley
authors: A
authors: Read
authors: Gillian
authors: G
authors: Rhodes
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult