“…This finding is in contrast to previous work using natural faces, which found young infants outperformed older infants, and even adults, by discriminating natural human, monkey, and sheep faces (e.g., Pascalis et al, ; Simpson et al, ). Thus, though others have documented declines in animal face discrimination with development (e.g., McKone et al, ; Scott & Monesson, ), the present results suggest this is not the case, and apparent declines in performance should be reconsidered, because they may be due to the way in which a task is perceived differently by different age groups (Cashon, Ha, Allen, & Barna, ; Vouloumanos, ). A functionalist approach, which considers an individual's changing goals across development, may be especially helpful (Scherf & Scott, ).…”