TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding the Developmental Origins of Primate Face Recognition
T2 - Theoretical Commentary on Martin-Malivel and Okada (2007)
AU - McKone, Elinor
AU - Crookes, Kate
PY - 2007/12
Y1 - 2007/12
N2 - J. Martin-Malivel and K. Okada (2007, this issue) reported that chimpanzees raised with extensive social contact with humans show face discrimination abilities for human faces that exceed those for conspecific faces. Martin-Malivel and Okada have placed this finding in the theoretical context of the relative role of experience and innate face representations. The present article discusses the logic of the various styles of studies relevant to this question-considering primates without prior visual experience, sensitive periods, perceptual narrowing, childhood development, other-species effects, other-race effects, social quality of experience with nonconspecifics, and perceived social group membership-and also reviews the key current data. A case is made that there is still a long way to go in understanding whether there is an innate representation of conspecific faces, how tightly tuned any such representation is to conspecific morphology, and how experience obtained during different age brackets (e.g., infancy versus adulthood) affects discrimination and interacts with any innate representation.
AB - J. Martin-Malivel and K. Okada (2007, this issue) reported that chimpanzees raised with extensive social contact with humans show face discrimination abilities for human faces that exceed those for conspecific faces. Martin-Malivel and Okada have placed this finding in the theoretical context of the relative role of experience and innate face representations. The present article discusses the logic of the various styles of studies relevant to this question-considering primates without prior visual experience, sensitive periods, perceptual narrowing, childhood development, other-species effects, other-race effects, social quality of experience with nonconspecifics, and perceived social group membership-and also reviews the key current data. A case is made that there is still a long way to go in understanding whether there is an innate representation of conspecific faces, how tightly tuned any such representation is to conspecific morphology, and how experience obtained during different age brackets (e.g., infancy versus adulthood) affects discrimination and interacts with any innate representation.
KW - conspecifics
KW - experience
KW - face recognition
KW - innate
KW - other-species
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=38149061300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1437
DO - 10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1437
M3 - Article
SN - 0735-7044
VL - 121
SP - 1437
EP - 1441
JO - Behavioral Neuroscience
JF - Behavioral Neuroscience
IS - 6
ER -