These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Holistic face processing is mature at 4 years of age: evidence from the composite face effect.
    Author: de Heering A, Houthuys S, Rossion B.
    Journal: J Exp Child Psychol; 2007 Jan; 96(1):57-70. PubMed ID: 17007869.
    Abstract:
    Although it is acknowledged that adults integrate features into a representation of the whole face, there is still some disagreement about the onset and developmental course of holistic face processing. We tested adults and children from 4 to 6 years of age with the same paradigm measuring holistic face processing through an adaptation of the composite face effect [Young, A. W., Hellawell, D., & Hay, D. C. (1987). Configurational information in face perception. Perception, 16, 747-759]. In Experiment 1, only 6-year-old children and adults tended to perceive the two identical top parts as different, suggesting that holistic face processing emerged at 6 years of age. However, Experiment 2 suggested that these results could be due to a response bias in children that was cancelled out by always presenting two faces in the same format on each trial. In this condition, all age groups present strong composite face effects, suggesting that holistic face processing is mature as early as after 4 years of experience with faces.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]