Holistic face processing is mature at 4 years of age: Evidence from the composite face effect

The development of facial emotion recognition: The role of configural information

“…Adults are slower and less accurate to recognize either half part when the top and bottom parts are vertically aligned (creating a new face stimulus) than when the same top and bottom parts are misaligned. A similar composite effect (i.e., the recognition of a person from a half-part of the face is interfered by the alignment of a counter-part from another face) was observed in 4-year-olds and adults (De Heering, Houthuys, &Rossion, 2007; for a similar observation from 6-to 10-year-olds, see Carey & Diamond, 1994). In the whole-part paradigm, participants need to recognize face features either embedded in the whole face stimulus or presented in isolation.…”

A cross-syndrome study of the development of holistic face recognition in children with autism, Down syndrome, and Williams syndrome

“…The authors concluded that the features of the habituation faces were processed independently in the inverted orientation, in which case both familiar and composite faces would contain familiar features and neither would appear novel. Most studies that have used the part-whole and composite face paradigms have shown that holistic processing is apparent by the age of 4 (de Herring et al, 2007;Pellicano & Rhodes, 2003) and cannot account for developmental changes in face recognition after the age of 6 years (Carey & Diamond, 1994;Tanaka, Kay, Grinnell, Stanfield & Szechter, 1998).…”

Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Therefore, it was concluded that holistic face processing was mature at 4 years of age and possibly even earlier than this (de Heering et al, 2007).…”

“…More recently, de Heering et al (2007) also demonstrated a holistic processing strategy in young children. Specifically, it was shown that when 4 -years old children are tested on the composite face effect, they perform as well as 6 year olds and adults.…”

“…Based on these assumptions and on evidence that suggests that infants with autism differ from typically developing infants in the manner and frequency with they engage in face processing (Osterling & Dawson, 1994;Osterling et al, 2002), it is arguable that holistic face processing skills, which are observed in typical 4 year olds (de Heering et al, 2007) may not be developed effectively in children with autism.…”