Face Adaptation and Attractiveness Aftereffects in 8-Year-Olds and Adults

• Autores: Gizelle Anzures, Catherine J. Mondloch, Christine Lackner
• Localización: Child development, ISSN 0009-3920, Vol. 80, Nº. 1, 2009, págs. 178-191
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A novel method was used to investigate developmental changes in face processing: attractiveness aftereffects. Consistent with the norm-based coding model, viewing consistently distorted faces shifts adults’ attractiveness preferences toward the adapting stimuli. Thus, adults’ attractiveness judgments are influenced by a continuously updated face prototype. To investigate the development of this process, a novel method was developed for 8-year-olds. After reading a storybook composed of faces with either compressed or expanded features, 8-year-olds’ ratings of faces distorted in the direction of the adapting stimuli increased. Nonetheless, they required larger distortions than adults to rate undistorted faces as most attractive preadaptation. Thus, although 8-year-olds’ attractiveness preferences are influenced by a continuously updated prototype, their face space is less refined than that of adults.