title: How experience shapes memory for faces: an event-related potential study on the own-age bias.
abstract: Young adults more accurately remember own-age than older faces. We tested whether this own-age bias (OAB) is reduced by increased experience. Young experts (geriatric nurses) and controls performed a recognition experiment with young and old faces. Critically, while control participants demonstrated better memory for young faces, no OAB was observed in the experts. Event-related potentials revealed larger N170 and P2 amplitudes for young than old faces in both groups, suggesting no group differences during early perceptual processing. At test, N250 repetition effects were more anteriorily distributed for own- than other-age faces in control participants, whereas experts showed no corresponding effects. A larger late positive component (LPC) for old than young faces was observed in controls, but not in experts. Larger LPCs may reflect prolonged stimulus processing compromising memory retrieval. In sum, experience with other-age faces does not affect early perceptual processing, but modulates later stages related to memory retrieval.
authors.affiliation: DFG Research Unit Person Perception Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Institute of Psychology, Am Steiger 3/1, 07743 Jena, Germany; Department of General Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Jena, Germany. Electronic address: holger.wiese@uni-jena.de.
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wiese
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.forename: Melanie C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Steffens
authors.forename: Stefan R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Schweinberger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015982:Bias; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Event-related potentials; Expertise; Faces; Own-age bias; Recognition memory