title: How do 9-month-old infants categorize human and ape faces? A rapid repetition ERP study.
abstract: The current study investigates how infants categorize human compared to ape faces. Nine-month-old infants were presented with priming stimuli related to human (N = 24) or ape (N = 25) face targets on different levels of categorization. Event-related potentials were recorded during a passive-looking rapid repetition paradigm. In a within-subjects design, priming effects of the same faces, different faces from the same basic-level category, different faces from the other basic-level category (human/ape faces), and house fronts were examined. Human and ape faces were first categorized on a superordinate level ("faces"), as indicated by enhanced P1 amplitude and reduced P1 latency for faces primed by any faces. Then, human and ape faces were categorized on a basic level. N290 amplitude and latency were larger for human and monkey targets primed by human faces. Neither human nor ape faces were categorized on the individual level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peykarjou
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pauen
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hoehl
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Categorization; Development; Event-related potentials; Face processing; Infants