信息类型和位置对儿童不同时期面孔加工的作用

Effects of Information Type and Location on Face Processing in Children’s Development

采用多维面孔任务(face dimensions task)探讨了信息类型和位置对7~17岁儿童面孔加工的作用。该任务通过改变面孔的类型信息(特征和结构)和位置信息(眼部和嘴部),要求儿童对同时呈现的面孔图片进行"相同"或"不同"的判断。研究发现,儿童面孔加工水平随年龄提高,13~14岁表现最好;对面孔特征的加工好于结构加工,而眼部和嘴部的加工差异从11~12岁开始出现;类型信息和位置信息共同作用于面孔加工,表现为儿童在嘴部的特征和结构加工上未出现显著差异,但眼部的特征加工显著好于眼部的结构加工。

The goal of the current study was to investigate the effects of information type and location on face perception in children aged beween 7~17 years old.Participants were administered the face dimensions task,in which featural and configural information were parametrically and independently manipulated in the eye and mouth region.Participants were asked to judge whether simultaneously presented faces were the“same”or“different”.The main finding was that with the increase of age,the ability of face processing improved continuously,and 13-to 14-year-old children showed the best performance.Children showed a better ability to process featural information than configural information,and the differences to process eye region and mouth region appeared from 11-to 12-year-old.In addition,the results indicated that the type of face information(featural vs.configural)and its location(eye vs.mouth)jointly contributed to the face perception.Children showed no difference in their ability to discriminate differences in mouth size and nose and mouth spacing,but they showed a better ability to discriminate in eye size than eye spacing.