The development of face expertise: Evidence for a qualitative change in processing

There is conflicting evidence regarding the development of expert face recognition, as indexed by the face-inversion effect (FIE; de Heering, Rossion, & Maurer, 2011; Young and Bion, 1981) potentially due to the nature of the stimuli used in previous research. The developmental trajectory of the FIE was assessed in participants aged between 5- and 18-years using age-matched and adult stimuli. Four experiments demonstrated that upright face recognition abilities improved linearly with age (presumably due to improved memory storage capacities) and this was larger than for inverted faces. The FIE followed a stepped function, with no FIE for participants younger than 9-years of age. These results indicate maturation of expert face processing mechanisms that occur at the age of 10-years, similar to expertise in other domains.