Becoming a face expert

我的研究目的是了解人类发展的机制。为了做到这一点，我研究了视觉感知的发展及其通过视觉体验的变化而改变。这项提案侧重于人脸处理。成年人是识别个人面孔的专家，很大程度上是因为他们对面孔之间面部特征间距的微小差异非常敏感。这种敏感度使他们能够从不同的角度识别人脸，在光线不佳的情况下，多年后，脸部已经老化。这一专业技能成熟缓慢：14岁的孩子不像成年人，4岁的孩子甚至不能识别自己的脸，当它与只有特征间距不同的陪衬面孔配对时。我将通过两个研究项目调查经验在专业知识发展中的作用。第一个集中在学龄前几年的面孔知觉，这段时间还没有被系统地研究过。我将测试这样一种假设，即多种面部处理机制对面部特征的间距很敏感，并且这些机制的发展速度不同。例如，我会比较孩子们对陌生和熟悉(例如，玩伴)面孔特征间距的敏感度。第二个重点是经验中的自然变异对专业知识发展的作用。成年人比其他种族的人更善于识别自己的种族面孔，因此他们的专业知识仅限于他们有丰富经验的面孔。我将使用三个互补的方法来研究经验的作用：a)我将对外国交换生(例如，抵达加拿大的中国学生)中新种族面孔的专业知识发展进行纵向研究；b)我将比较主要接触本族面孔的儿童与广泛接触高加索面孔和中国面孔的中国收养的儿童；以及c)我将测试具有非人类(猴子)面孔专长的成年人，因为他们是动物园的管理员。总而言之，这些结果将增加我们对人类视觉感知和发育机制的理解。

The objective of my research is to understand the mechanisms of human development. To do so, I study the development of visual perception and its alteration by variations in visual experience. This proposal focuses on face processing. Adults are experts at recognizing the identity of individual faces, largely because they are exquisitely sensitive to small differences among faces in the spacing of facial features. This sensitivity allows them to recognize faces from different points of view, under poor lighting conditions, and after many years have passed and the face has aged. This expertise is slow to mature: 14-year-olds are not adultlike and 4-year-olds cannot recognize even their own face when it is paired with a foil face that differs only in the spacing of features. I will investigate the role of experience in the development of expertise through two research programs. The first focuses on face perception during the pre-school years, a time period that has not been studied systematically. I will test the hypothesis that multiple face-processing mechanisms are sensitive to the spacing of facial features and that these mechanisms develop at different rates. For example, I will compare children's sensitivity to the spacing of features in unfamiliar versus familiar (e.g., a playmate) faces. The second focuses on the role of natural variations in experience on the development of expertise. Adults are better at recognizing own-race faces than other-race faces, thus their expertise is limited to faces with which they have abundant experience. I will investigate the role of experience using three complementary approaches: a) I will conduct a longitudinal study of the development of expertise for a new race of faces in foreign exchange students (e.g., Chinese students arriving in Canada); b) I will compare children who are exposed primarily to own-race faces with children adopted from China who receive extensive exposure to Caucasian and Chinese faces; and c) I will test adults with expertise with nonhuman (monkey) faces because they are curators at a zoo. Together, the results will add to our understanding of human visual perception and of developmental mechanisms.