Kang@Li


TitleF Emergence and Development of Face Processing Expertise


Abstract

@Faces are one of the most important social stimuli in our environment. The ability to process faces is essential in many aspects of social cognition. For this reason, human face processing has been one of the major areas in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. In this talk, I will present a series of experimental work our team has conducted in the last 5-6 years on the development of face processing abilities in infants and children. I will specifically focus on the well-known face processing effects, Other Race effects, that we process own race faces differently from those of other race faces. I will present data from studies using behavioral and eye-tracking methodologies to demonstrate the role that experience plays a pivotal and early role in the development of the other-race effect in specific and the acquisition of face processing expertise in general. I will use the evidence to suggest that individuals' unique experience in their social environment plays a crucial ! role in the acquisition of human face processing expertise, which in turns affects how different types of faces are processed.