Achromatic contrast effects in infants: Adults and 4-month-old infants show similar deviations from Wallach’s ratio rule

AbstractWhen adults view a disk of light embedded in a higher luminance surround, the perceived lightness of the disk is largely determined by the surround to disk luminance ratio (Wallach’s ratio rule). In the present study, both adult and infant subjects were tested with multiple discrete trial procedures in which the surround luminance was decreased between the study and test phases of each trial. Tested with sequential lightness matching, adult subjects showed an approximate ratio rule, with a small but consistent deviation in the direction of a luminance match. Tested with a forced-choice novelty preference technique in combination with a cross-familiarization paradigm, 4-month-old infants showed preference minima that fell closer to the mean adult match than to the ratio rule. This finding suggests that, at least for a relatively simple visual display, 4-month-old infants’ looking preferences are governed by an adult-like achromatic contrast system

Categorizing Two Taiwanese Major Political Parties From Their Faces: The Influence of Provincial Appearance

People go beyond the inferences afforded by a person’s observable features to make guesses about personality traits or even social memberships such as political affiliations. The present study extended Hu et al. (2016) to further investigate the influence of provincial appearance on differentiating KMT (Kuomintang) and DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) candidates by headshot photos with three experiments. In Experiment 1 (Membership categorization task), participants categorized the photos from the pilot study (where the difference between the perceived age of KMT and DPP candidates was reduced) and divided into four blocks by their perceived age. We found that participants were able to distinguish KMT from DPP candidates significantly better than chance, even when the perceived age difference between the two parties was minimized. In Experiment 2 (Trait rating task), we asked young and middle-aged adults to rate six traits on candidate’s photos. We found that “provincial appearance” is the core trait differentiating the two parties for both young and older participants, while “facial maturity” is another trait for older participants only. In Experiment 3 (Double categorization task), we asked participants to categorize the photos from the Exp. 1 on their membership (KMT or DPP) and on provincial appearance (mainlander or native Taiwanese) in two separate sessions. Results showed that young adults were likely to use the “provincial appearance” as the main characteristic cue to categorize candidates’ political membership. In sum, our study showed that Taiwanese adults could categorize the two parties by their headshot photos when age cue was eliminated. Moreover, provincial appearance was the most critical trait for differentiating between KMT and DPP candidates, which may reflect a piece of significant history during the development of the two parties

With Or without a Hole: Young Infant's Sensitivity for Topological

Evidence from adult psychophysics, brain imaging, and honeybee's behavior has been reported to support the notion that topological properties are the primitives of visual representation (Chen, 1982). The present study aims to explore the question of how the sensitivity to topological property might originate during development. Specifically, we tested 1.5- to 6-month-old infants' visual sensitivity for topological versus geometric properties with the forced-choice novelty preference technique. A disk and a ring were used in the topologically-different condition (Exp. 1), while a disk and a triangle were used in the geometrically different condition (Exp. 2). The results showed that infants could reliably discriminate stimuli based on topological differences, but failed to do so based on geometric differences. Moreover, infants preferred the topologically-different figure (the ring) in the test phase of the generalization task. Further analysis on individual infants' age and performance revealed two distinct developmental trends. Infants seem to be sensitive to topological differences as young as 1.5 months while their ability to discriminate geometric differences was at chance before 3 months and gradually improves with age. Taken together, our findings suggested an early sensitivity for topological property, at least for the detection of stimuli with or without a hole

Developing the own-race advantage in 4-, 6-, and 9-month-old Taiwanese infants: A perceptual learning perspective

Previous infant studies on the other-race effect have favored the perceptual narrowing view, or declined sensitivities to rarely exposed other-race faces. Here we wish to provide an alternative possibility, perceptual learning, manifested by improved sensitivity for frequently exposed own-race faces in the first year of life. Using the familiarization/visual-paired comparison paradigm, we presented 4-, 6- and 9-month-old Taiwanese infants with oval-cropped Taiwanese, Caucasian, Philippine faces, and each with three different manipulations of increasing task difficulty (i.e., change identity, change eyes, and widen eye spacing). An adult experiment was first conducted to verify the task difficulty. Our results showed that, with oval-cropped faces, the 4 month-old infants could only discriminate Taiwanese change identity condition and not any others, suggesting an early own-race advantage at 4 months. The 6 month-old infants demonstrated novelty preferences in both Taiwanese and Caucasian change identity conditions, and proceeded to the Taiwanese change eyes condition. The 9-month-old infants demonstrated novelty preferences in the change identity condition of all three ethnic faces. They also passed the Taiwanese change eyes condition but could not extend this refined ability of detecting a change in the eyes for the Caucasian or Philippine faces. Taken together, we interpret the pattern of results as evidence supporting perceptual learning during the first year: the ability to discriminate own-race faces emerges at 4 months and continues to refine, while the ability to discriminate other-race faces emerges between 6 to 9 months and retains at 9 months. Additionally, the discrepancies in the face stimuli and methods between studies advocating the narrowing view and those supporting the learning view were discussed

The development of the own-race advantage in school-age children: A morphing face paradigm.

Previous studies examining the other-race effect in school-age children mostly focused on recognition memory performance. Here we investigated perceptual discriminability for Asian-like versus Caucasian-like morph faces in school-age Taiwanese children and adults. One-hundred-and-two 5- to 12-year-old children and twenty-three adults performed a sequential same/different face matching task, where they viewed an Asian- or a Caucasian-parent face followed by either the same parent face or a different morphed face (containing 15%, 30%, 45%, or 60% contribution from the other parent face) and judged if the two faces looked the same. We computed the d' as the sensitivity index for each age groups. We also analyzed the group mean rejection rates as a function of the morph level and fitted with a cumulative normal distribution function. Results showed that the adults and the oldest 11-12-year-old children exhibited a greater sensitivity (d') and a smaller discrimination threshold (μ) in the Asian-parent condition than those in the Caucasian-parent condition, indicating the presence of an own-race advantage. On the contrary, 5- to 10-year-old children showed an equal sensitivity and similar discrimination thresholds for both conditions, indicating an absence of the own-race advantage. Moreover, a gradual development in enhancing the discriminability for the Asian-parent condition was observed from age 5 to 12; however, the progression in the Caucasian-parent condition was less apparent. In sum, our findings suggest that expertise in face processing may take the entire childhood to develop, and supports the perceptual learning view of the other-race effect-the own-race advantage seen in adulthood likely reflects a result of prolonged learning specific to faces most commonly seen in one's visual environment such as own-race faces

The Near-Race and Other-Race Effect in Taiwanese Adults: Exploring the Featural versus Configural Face Discrimination Process

Other-race-effect (ORE) refers to the observation that we can recognize own-race faces better than other-race faces (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). Yet, whether featural or configural face processing might contribute to other-race effect is still unclear. In the present study, we tested Taiwanese adults with faces of four ethnic groups (Taiwanese, Philippine, Caucasian, African) and each with four levels of discriminability: Easy (change configuration and component: change identity), Medium (change component: change eyes), Hard-I (change configuration: widen eye spacing), and Hard-II (change configuration: mouth moved up). We adopted the visual paired-comparison task with two-alternative-forced-choice (2AFC) procedure. The overall results showed that accuracy decreased and response time increased as the stimulus difficulty increased for each race. The accuracy was highest and the response time was lowest for the Taiwanese easy condition, which suggests an own-race advantage. In addition, the pattern of response time for Philippine faces was similar to that of Taiwanese faces and was shorter than Caucasian faces in the medium and Hard-I conditions. In conclusion, our study had two main findings. First, Philippine faces were seen as more like own-race faces rather than other-race faces. Second, both featural and configural face processing contribute to the other-race-effect

Taiwanese political parties can be categorized by face, by those who reported making face-to-trait inferences

The present study aims to replicate and extend Rule & Ambady (2010)’s findings that Republicans and Democrats could be differentiated by face. In Experiment 1, undergraduates categorized 50 gray-scale full-face photos of candidates of the two major political parties in Taiwan, the Kuomingtang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Using identical stimuli and procedure, Experiment 2 tested 25- to 57-year-olds. Experiment 3 tested undergraduates with cropped photos, Experiment 4, with photos devoid of the mouth and chin area. At the end of each Experiment, we interviewed the participants about the strategies used. Results showed that undergraduates could categorize KMT and DPP with accuracies significantly higher than chance in full-face photos (Exp.1), M = .524, p = .045, cropped photos (Exp.3), M = .534, p = .016, and photos devoid of the mouth-and-chin area (Exp.4), M = .530, p = .048. Adults aged between 25 and 57 could also categorize full-face photos (Exp.2), M = .557, p < .001. Analysis on strategy use revealed that the better-than-chance performance may be a unique contribution of those who reported making face-to-trait inferences. In sum, we replicated Rule and Ambady’s (2010) results in East Asian and found that face-to-trait inferences may be essential

Data Analysis_Children_corrected SDT 20171109.xlsx

<p>We investigated perceptual discriminability for Asian-like versus Caucasian-like morph faces in school-age Taiwanese children and adults. One-hundred-and-two 5- to 12-year-old children and twenty-three adults performed a sequential same/different face matching task, where they viewed an Asian- or a Caucasian-parent face followed by either the same parent face or a different morphed face (containing 15%, 30%, 45%, or 60% contribution from the other parent face) and judged if the two faces looked the same. We computed the <i>d’</i> as the sensitivity index for each age groups. We also analyzed the group mean rejection rates as a function of the morph level and fitted with a cumulative normal distribution function. Results showed that the adults and the oldest 11-12-year-old children exhibited a greater sensitivity (<i>d</i>’) and a smaller discrimination threshold (<i>m</i>) in the Asian-parent condition than those in the Caucasian-parent condition, indicating the presence of an own-race advantage. On the contrary, 5- to 10-year-old children showed an equal sensitivity and similar discrimination thresholds for both conditions, indicating an absence of the own-race advantage. Moreover, a gradual development in enhancing the discriminability for the Asian-parent condition was observed from age 5 to 12; however, the progression in the Caucasian-parent condition was less apparent. In sum, our findings suggest that expertise in face processing may take the entire childhood to develop, and supports the <i>perceptual learning view</i> of the other-race effect--the own-race advantage seen in adulthood likely reflects a result of prolonged learning specific to faces most commonly seen in one’s visual environment such as own-race faces. </p

Illustration of a sample trial of the sequential same/different face matching task.

<p>Illustration of a sample trial of the sequential same/different face matching task.</p