Effects of repetition and configural changes on the development of face recognition processes

We investigated the effect of repetition on recognition of upright, inverted and contrast-reversed target faces in children from 8 to 15 years when engaged in a learning phase/test phase paradigm with target and distractor faces. Early (P1, N170) and late ERP components were analysed. Children across age groups performed equally well, and were better at recognizing upright faces. However, teenagers and adults were equally accurate for all three face types. The neurophysiological responses to upright, inverted and negative faces matured until adulthood and showed different effects at different ages. PI and N170 components were affected by face type at all ages, suggesting early configural disruption on encoding processes regardless of age. Frontal ERPs reflected the difficulty of processing these stimuli. Distinct repetition effects were seen at frontal, temporal frontal and parietal sites, suggesting differential involvement of these brain regions underlying working memory and recognition processes. Thus, a learning phase was sufficient (a) for 8-year-olds to perform as accurately as 15-year-olds and (b) to eliminate face type effects in teenagers and adults, but not in younger children.