The relations between the development of object and face expertise

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The focus of my research is to elucidate basic mechanisms of perception and attention involved in the development of object and face processing. There is a longstanding debate about how children develop expertise in face processing - is a specialized mechanism involved or are faces processed much like other objects of interest? To answer this question we will look at how perceptual expertise for face and object processing develops over time as children fine-tune their experience with objects and faces between the ages of 7 and 13 years. Whereas the interest in faces is ubiquitous in most children, there is considerable variability in the interest in objects among children. Some children have no particular interest in specific objects, others pursue hobbies that involve objects, and still others (e.g., an estimated 75% of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have a circumscribed interest in objects that interferes with their family and social life. We will capitalize on this variability to determine if, and in what way, children's experience with a specific object (e.g., trains) contributes to the development of perceptual expertise for those objects. We will examine the components of selective attention (i.e., orienting and disengaging attention, searching for targets, filtering distractors, and priming - the influence of previous experience/expectations) within the context of object and face processing. We will also examine attention in free-viewing conditions and track eye-movement patterns to expert objects and faces. The findings will inform us about the quantity and quality of children's experience with objects and how these contribute to the development of perceptual expertise when the object of interest is self-selected and pursued intensively and over an extensive period of time. We will be able to report on how perceptual expertise may affect face processing and if and in what way selective attention plays a role in the development of object and face processing. The findings will equip researchers with better conceptual as well as methodological understanding of perceptual development that includes the role of selective attention.