Face Detection and the Development of Own‐Species Bias in Infant Macaques

Simpson, Elizabeth A.; Jakobsen, Krisztina V.; Damon, Fabrice; Suomi, Stephen J.; Ferrari, Pier Francesco; Paukner, Annika

doi:10.1111/cdev.12565

Cited by 26 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 107 publications

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“…Infant macaques present sensitivity for basic face structures (i.e., first-order relations, eyes above the nose, nose above the mouth). They prefer stimuli that respect face-like configuration192021, and prior work has revealed a similar sensitivity in human neonates2223. Later, between 3 and 12 months of age, human infants exhibit a perceptual tuning for faces in a way that makes processing and recognizing infrequently seen faces (e.g., monkey faces) more difficult24, a phenomenon likely driven by experience252627.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Preference for facial averageness: Evidence for a common mechanism in human and macaque infants

Damon

Méary

Quinn

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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Human adults and infants show a preference for average faces, which could stem from a general processing mechanism and may be shared among primates. However, little is known about preference for facial averageness in monkeys. We used a comparative developmental approach and eye-tracking methodology to assess visual attention in human and macaque infants to faces naturally varying in their distance from a prototypical face. In Experiment 1, we examined the preference for faces relatively close to or far from the prototype in 12-month-old human infants with human adult female faces. Infants preferred faces closer to the average than faces farther from it. In Experiment 2, we measured the looking time of 3-month-old rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) viewing macaque faces varying in their distance from the prototype. Like human infants, macaque infants looked longer to faces closer to the average. In Experiments 3 and 4, both species were presented with unfamiliar categories of faces (i.e., macaque infants tested with adult macaque faces; human infants and adults tested with infant macaque faces) and showed no prototype preferences, suggesting that the prototypicality effect is experience-dependent. Overall, the findings suggest a common processing mechanism across species, leading to averageness preferences in primates.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Preference for facial averageness: Evidence for a common mechanism in human and macaque infants

Damon

Méary

Quinn

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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“…Future studies should also examine category formation for face age in infants younger than 9 months, who are less experienced with faces from different age groups. Forthcoming lines of investigation could additionally focus on other aspects of visual perception such as face detection in complex visual arrays, contrasting categories of faces differing by age (for related work contrasting categories of faces by species, see Jakobsen, Umstead, & Simpson, 2016; Simpson, Jakobsen, Damon, Suomi, & Ferrari, in press). Such work would have theoretical significance given that infant faces have been shown to be attentionally prioritized by adults, in both humans (Brosch, Sander, & Scherer, 2007; Proverbio, De Gabriele, Manfredi, & Adorni, 2011) and monkeys (Koda, Sato, & Kato, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of category formation for faces differing by age in 9‐ to 12‐month‐olds: An effect of experience with infant faces

Damon

Quinn

Heron-Delaney

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

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We examined category formation for faces differing in age in 9- and 12-month-olds, and the influence of exposure to infant faces on such ability. Infants were familiarized with adult or infant faces, and then tested with a novel exemplar from the familiarized category paired with a novel exemplar from a novel category (Experiment 1). Both age groups formed discrete categories of adult and infant faces, but exposure to infant faces in everyday life did not modulate performance. The same task was conducted with child versus infant faces (Experiment 2). Whereas 9-month-olds preferred infant faces after familiarization with child faces, but not child faces after familiarization with infant faces, 12-month-olds formed discrete categories of child and infant faces. Moreover, more exposure to infant faces correlated with higher novel category preference scores when infants were familiarized with infant faces in 12-month-olds, but not 9-month-olds. The 9-month-old asymmetry did not reflect spontaneous preference for infant over child faces (Experiment 3). These findings indicate that 9- and 12-month-olds can form age-based categories of faces. The ability of 12-month-olds to form separate child and infant categories suggests that they have a more exclusive representation of face age, one that may be influenced by prior experience with infant faces.

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“…Paukner, Simpson, Ferrari, Mrozek, & Suomi, 2014). Such studies have revealed that, by 3 weeks of age, macaques can efficiently detect and look longer at faces compared with nonfaces (Simpson et al, 2017). Further, socially reared macaque infants exhibit early preferences for directgaze faces soon after birth (Muschinski et al, 2016) followed by the rapid development of gaze following in the first year of life (Rosati, Arre, Platt, & Santos, 2016), much like human infants.…”

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Visual preferences for direct‐gaze faces in infant macaques (Macaca mulatta) with limited face exposure

Simpson

Paukner

Pedersen

et al. 2018

Developmental Psychobiology

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From birth, human and nonhuman primates attend more to faces with direct gaze compared with averted gaze, and previous studies report that attention to the eyes is linked to the emergence of later social skills. Here, we explored whether early experiences influence attraction to eye contact in infant macaques by examining their attention to face pairs varying in their gaze direction across the first 13 weeks of life. Infants raised by human caretakers had limited conspecific interactions (nursery‐reared; N = 16) and were compared to infants raised in rich social environments (mother‐reared; N = 20). Both groups looked longer to faces and the eyes of direct compared to averted‐gaze faces. Looking to all faces and eyes also increased with age. Nursery‐reared infants did not display age‐associated increases in attention to direct‐gaze faces specifically, suggesting that, while there may be an initial preference for direct‐gaze faces from birth, social experiences may support its early development.

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Face Detection and the Development of Own‐Species Bias in Infant Macaques

Cited by 26 publications

References 107 publications

Preference for facial averageness: Evidence for a common mechanism in human and macaque infants

Preference for facial averageness: Evidence for a common mechanism in human and macaque infants

Development of category formation for faces differing by age in 9‐ to 12‐month‐olds: An effect of experience with infant faces

Visual preferences for direct‐gaze faces in infant macaques (Macaca mulatta) with limited face exposure

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