The Own Age Bias In Face Recognation:An Explanation Of Regional Selectivity For Holistic Processing

People recognize own age faces significantly better than other age faces.This phenomenon is called the own age bias(OAB).Researchers speculate that the own age bias is due to the fact that people tend to perform the holistic processing on own age faces and tend to perform the characteristic processing on other age faces.The current study tested this hypothesis by using the face delayed matching paradigm combined with the variable viewing position paradigm.During the experiments,the participants were asked to look at the left or right eye of the target face,followed by four matched faces(completely consistent / the peripheral area consistent but the central area inconsistent / the central area consistent but the peripheral area inconsistent / completely inconsistent).According to the types of the wrong response,we can judge whether participants rely on the peripheral or the central to process different age faces;whether participants rely on the whole information or the characteristic information to recognize different age faces;We also manipulated the face orientation and fixation location to test whether fixation region will affect the holistic processing of face and thus affect the own age bias?In Experiment 1,subjects fixed on the eye area of the upright faces,and the difference in the recognition method and recognition performance of the own age and other age faces was examined.The results showed that the recognition performance of own age faces was significantly higher than that of the other age faces,that is,there was an own age bias.Compared with the children's faces,there was no significant difference in the proportion of “the peripheral area consistent but the central area inconsistent” when the subjects recognizing adult faces,however,the proportion of“the central area consistent but the peripheral area inconsistent” was less.The results suggest that the own age bias may be due to the stronger characteristic processing of the other age faces,which supports the holistic processing assumption of own age bias.In Experiment 2,subjects fixed on the eye area of the inverted faces,and the difference in the recognition method and recognition performance of the own age and other age faces was examined.The results showed that there was no significant difference in the recognition performance of the own age and the other age faces,that is,the own age bias disappeared;the own age bias disappeared,regardless of the proportion of “the peripheral area consistent but the central area inconsistent” or “the central area consistent but the peripheral area inconsistent”.The results suggest that face orientation can influence the own age bias by affecting the processing method of the own age and the other age faces.In Experiment 3,subjects fixed on the mouth area of the upright faces,and the difference in the recognition method and recognition performance of the own age and other age faces was examined.The results showed that the recognition performance of own age faces was significantly higher than that of the other age faces,that is,there was an own age bias;the own age bias disappeared,regardless of the proportion of“the peripheral area consistent but the central area inconsistent” or “the central area consistent but the peripheral area inconsistent”.The results suggest that the fixation location will influence the own age bias by affecting the processing method of the own age and other age faces.In Experiment 4,we used eye movement technology to examine the differences in the recognition methods and recognition performance of the same age and other age faces.It was found that compared with the other age faces,the adult subjects had more total fixations on the “the peripheral area consistent and the central area consistent” face when identifying faces of the own age,and the total fixation time and the single fixation time were longer;compared with other age faces,adult subjects have more total fixations on the faces of “the peripheral area consistent and the central area inconsistent” when they identify faces of the own age,and the total fixation time and the single fixation time were longer,and they have less total fixations on the faces of “the central area consistent and the peripheral area inconsistent” when they identify faces of the own age,and the total fixation time and the single fixation time are shorter.The results suggest that the reason for the own age bias may be due to the factthat the individual's holistic processing of the own age face is stronger and the characteristic processing is weaker.This supports the holistic processing assumption of own age bias.In summary,our studies:(1)support the experience-based holistic processing hypothesis of own age bias;(2)support the region-based holistic processing theory,fixing on the eye region is more conducive to the face holistic processing.