关键词: 本龄效应, 类别化-个体化模型, 个体化加工, 类别化加工, 知觉经验, 加工方式, 动机水平

Abstract: This study adopts the standard recognition paradigm, using the face recognition performance, based on categorization-individuation model of face recognition preference, designs 3 experiments to examine the influences of perceptual experience, processing method, and motivation level on own-age effect. The experiment 1 used 2 (group: college students, preschool teachers) x 2 (face age: children, youth) mixed design to examine whether perceptual experience is related to own-age effect. Participants were 60 preschool teachers and college students. Participants were exposed to 32 photographs, which consisted of 16 children photographs and 16 youth photographs(neutral faces and half of them were male). Following this exposure, sixty-four photographs, including 32 new photographs, were presented to the participants during the recognition test. The results indicated that preschool education students recognized youth faces better than children faces. However, for preschool teachers, there was no significant difference in recognizing youth faces and children faces. There was no significant difference in recognizing youth faces between the two groups. This explained that rich perceptual experience in recognizing different-age faces can improve memory performance for different-age faces, which weakened the own-age effect. The experiment 2 used 4 (processing method: categorization processing of children and youth faces, individual processing of children and youth face, individual processing of children face and categorization processing of youth face, categorization processing of children face and individual processing of youth face) x 2 (face age: children, youth) mixed design to investigate the influence of processing method on own-age effect. Participants were 128 undergraduate students. The individual processing required the participants to choose the most attractive parts (eyes, nose or mouth) of the face. Categorization processing required the participants to choose the shape of the face (round, square or oval face). The rest was the same as in experiment 1. The results showed that there is own-age effect in the categorization processing of children faces and individual processing of youth faces.This explained that categorization processing has a negative effect on retrieval performance, while individual processing lead to the improvement on retrieval performance. The experiment 3 used 3 (group: motivated children face, motivated youth face, control group) x 2 (face age: children, youth) mixed design to examine the influence of motivation on own-age effect. Participants were 72 undergraduate students. Participants of the motivated children face group would get 5 points for correctly identifying a child face and 1 point for correctly identifying a youth face. Participants of the motivated youth face group were the opposite. The rest was the same as in experiment 1. The results showed that participants of the motivated youth face group recognized youth faces better than children faces, participants in the control group recognized youth faces better than children faces. There was marginally significant difference in recognizing children faces between the three groups. One sample t test was conducted for the own-age effect size. Result showed that the own-age effect size of the participants of the motivated youth face group was significantly higher than participants in the control group.This explained that motivation effectively improved the retrieval performance. The results showed that by increasing perceptual experience, applying individual processing, and enhancing the motivation of processing the other-age faces can improve the recognition performance of other-age faces, and therefore weakened the own-age effect. This study also suggested that own-age effect and own-race effect abided by categorization-individuation model.

Key words: own-age effect, categorization-individuation model, categorization processing, individual processing, perceptual expertise, processiong way, motivation level