Developmental differences in holistic interference of facial part recognition

Nakabayashi, Kazuyo; Liu, Chang Hong

Abstract

Research has shown that adults' recognition of a facial part can be disrupted if the part is learnt without a face context but tested in a whole face. This has been interpreted as the holistic interference effect. The present study investigated whether children of 6- and 9-10-year-olds would show a similar effect. Participants were asked to judge whether a probe part was the same as or different from a test part whereby the part was presented either in isolation or in a whole face. The results showed that while all the groups were susceptible to a holistic interference, the youngest group was most severely affected. Contrary to the view that piecemeal processing precedes holistic processing in the cognitive development, our findings demonstrate that holistic processing is already present at 6 years of age. It is the ability to inhibit the influence of holistic information on piecemeal processing that seems to require a longer period of development into at an older and adult age.

Citation

Nakabayashi, K., & Liu, C. H. (2013). Developmental differences in holistic interference of facial part recognition. PLoS ONE, 8(10), e77504. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077504

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 11, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2013
• Publication Date: Oct 31, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jan 4, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 23, 2017
• Journal: PLoS ONE
• Print ISSN: 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 10
• Pages: e77504
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077504
• Keywords: Face recognition; Children; Holistic interference
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/383690
• Publisher URL: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0077504
• Additional Information: Copy of article first published in: PLoS ONE, 2013, v.8, issue 10, e77504.
• Contract Date: Nov 23, 2017