Event-related potentials reveal the development of stable face representations from natural variability

TY - JOUR

T1 - Event-related potentials reveal the development of stable face representations from natural variability

AU - Andrews, Sally

AU - Burton, Anthony Michael

AU - Schweinberger, Stefan

AU - Wiese, Holger

N1 - © 2016 The Experimental Psychology Society. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details

PY - 2017/8/1

Y1 - 2017/8/1

N2 - Natural variability between instances of unfamiliar faces can make it difficult to reconcile two images as the same person. Yet for familiar faces, effortless recognition occurs even with considerable variability between images. To explore how stable face representations develop, we employed incidental learning in the form of a face sorting task. In each trial, multiple images of two facial identities were sorted into two corresponding piles. Following the sort, participants showed evidence of having learnt the faces performing more accurately on a matching task with seen than with unseen identities. Furthermore, ventral temporal event-related potentials were more negative in the N250 time range for previously seen than for previously unseen identities. These effects appear to demonstrate some degree of abstraction, rather than simple picture learning, as the neurophysiological and behavioural effects were observed with novel images of the previously seen identities. The results provide evidence of the development of facial representations, allowing a window onto natural mechanisms of face learning.

AB - Natural variability between instances of unfamiliar faces can make it difficult to reconcile two images as the same person. Yet for familiar faces, effortless recognition occurs even with considerable variability between images. To explore how stable face representations develop, we employed incidental learning in the form of a face sorting task. In each trial, multiple images of two facial identities were sorted into two corresponding piles. Following the sort, participants showed evidence of having learnt the faces performing more accurately on a matching task with seen than with unseen identities. Furthermore, ventral temporal event-related potentials were more negative in the N250 time range for previously seen than for previously unseen identities. These effects appear to demonstrate some degree of abstraction, rather than simple picture learning, as the neurophysiological and behavioural effects were observed with novel images of the previously seen identities. The results provide evidence of the development of facial representations, allowing a window onto natural mechanisms of face learning.

KW - Event-related potentials

KW - Face learning

KW - Face recognition

KW - N250

KW - Stable representations

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84976393674&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/17470218.2016.1195851

DO - 10.1080/17470218.2016.1195851

M3 - Article

SN - 1747-0218

VL - 70

SP - 1620

EP - 1632

JO - The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

JF - The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

IS - 8

ER -