Ageing faces in ageing minds: A review on the own-age bias in face recognition

Wiese, H.; Komes, J.; Schweinberger, S.R.

Abstract

Similar to the well-established own-race bias, participants are more accurate at remembering own- relative to other-age faces. An own-age bias (OAB) in face memory was demonstrated in participants older than approximately 5 years. Crucially, the OAB is modulated by contact—participants with substantial contact with other-age persons show either reduced or absent OAB effects. In line with a perceptual expertise account of the phenomenon, holistic processing of other-age faces is less efficient when tested with young adult versus child faces, and differential holistic processing may therefore reflect one mechanism contributing to the OAB. A possible additional contribution of sociocognitive factors to the OAB remains largely untested. Importantly, event-related brain potential studies suggest that the own-race and own-age biases are based on at least partly different mechanisms. Theoretical explanations for different group-based biases in face memory will need to consider these findings.

Citation

Wiese, H., Komes, J., & Schweinberger, S. (2013). Ageing faces in ageing minds: A review on the own-age bias in face recognition. Visual Cognition, 21(9-10), 1337-1363. https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2013.823139

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2013-09
• Deposit Date: Nov 18, 2014
• Journal: Visual Cognition
• Print ISSN: 1350-6285
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-0716
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 9-10
• Pages: 1337-1363
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13506285.2013.823139
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1419808