A face detection bias for horizontal orientations develops in middle childhood

Abstract

Faces are complex stimuli that can be described via intuitive facial features like the eyes, nose, and mouth, “configural” features like the distances between facial landmarks, and features that correspond to computations performed in the early visual system (e.g., oriented edges). With regard to this latter category of descriptors, adult face recognition relies disproportionately on information in specific spatial frequency and orientation bands: many recognition tasks are performed more accurately when adults have access to mid-range spatial frequencies (8–16 cycles/face) and horizontal orientations (Dakin and Watt, 2009). In the current study, we examined how this information bias develops in middle childhood. We recruited children between the ages of 5–10 years-old to participate in a simple categorization task that required them to label images according to whether they depicted a face or a house. Critically, children were presented with face and house images comprised either of primarily horizontal orientation energy, primarily vertical orientation energy, or both horizontal and vertical orientation energy. We predicted that any bias favoring horizontal information over vertical should be more evident in faces than in houses, and also that older children would be more likely to show such a bias than younger children. We designed our categorization task to be sufficiently easy that children would perform at near-ceiling accuracy levels, but with variation in response times that would reflect how they rely on different orientations as a function of age and object category. We found that horizontal bias for face detection (but not house detection) correlated significantly with age, suggesting an emergent category-specific bias for horizontal orientation energy that develops during middle childhood. These results thus suggest that the tuning of high-level recognition to specific low-level visual features takes place over several years of visual development.

School‐age children's neural sensitivity to horizontal orientation energy in faces

“…In another developmental study using a face‐matching task and an extended age range (6 to 74 years of age), Goffaux, Poncin, and Schiltz () also presented evidence of a developing information bias favoring horizontal orientation energy in face images. Specifically, this study demonstrated that the tuning of the face inversion effect (Yin, ) to horizontal orientation information changes during childhood along similar lines as the time course reported by Balas, Schmidt et al (). These converging results thus suggest that high‐level mechanisms supporting face recognition continue to be tuned to low‐level orientation channels during childhood.…”

An Own-Age Bias in Recognizing Faces with Horizontal Information

“…Face specific processing was inferred based on the FIE which was significant with faces that contained horizontal information for the age groups 12–13, 14–15, 16–17, 18–19, 20–35, and >59 years of age. At the ages of 6–7, 8–9, and 10–11 years no FIE for horizontal information was observed which in line with the results presented by Balas et al (2015) suggesting progressive maturation of horizontal processing until young adulthood. At elderly adulthood, however, FIE development with faces that contained only horizontal information dropped notably with a non-linear function best fitting the FIE as a function of age.…”

“…Two recent publications add to understanding the role of horizontal information in face recognition. Balas et al (2015) tested 5–10 year olds with faces or objects (houses) that were either presented upright or inverted. Stimuli either contained vertical, horizontal or both vertical and horizontal information.…”

“…At the ages of 5–8, however, there seems to be no such bias in response time to faces that contained horizontal information suggesting development in middle childhood. Goffaux et al (2015) recently reported convergent results testing subjects aged from 6 to 74 years of age applying a method similar to Balas et al (2015) presenting subjects likewise with faces that either contained vertical, horizontal or both vertical and horizontal information. Face specific processing was inferred based on the FIE which was significant with faces that contained horizontal information for the age groups 12–13, 14–15, 16–17, 18–19, 20–35, and >59 years of age.…”

Three‐month‐old infants’ sensitivity to horizontal information within faces

“…They found that the size of the face inversion effect increased from 6 years of age onwards but only for upright horizontal facial cues. On the other hand, Balas, Schmidt, and Saville () showed that the basic‐level categorization of faces (against houses) is already better at horizontal than vertical angles at 5 years of age and that this horizontal bias further develops at least until 10 years of age. In sum, these developmental results indicate that: (1) the specialization of the face processing system from childhood to young adulthood roots into the refined encoding of horizontal ranges of upright face information and that (2) the coarse categorization of a face as a face attunes to horizontal orientation earlier than the fine discrimination of individual identities.…”