Perception is context dependent. For example, the perceived orientation of a bar changes depending on the presence of oriented bars around it. Contextual effects have also been demonstrated for more complex judgements, such as facial attractiveness or expression, although it remains unclear how these contextual facial effects depend on the types of faces surrounding the target face. To examine this, we measured the perceived age (a quantifiable measure) of a target face in the presence of differently aged faces in the surround. Using a unique database of standardized passport photos, participants were asked to estimate the age of a target face which was viewed either on its own or surrounded by two different identity flanker faces. The flanker faces were either both younger or both older than the target face, with different age offsets between flankers and targets of ±5, ±10, ±15, ±20 years. We find that when a target face is surrounded by younger faces, it systematically appears younger than when viewed on its own, and when it is surrounded by older faces, it systematically appears older than when viewed on its own. Surprisingly, we find that the magnitude of the flanker effects on perceived age of the target is asymmetric with younger flankers having a greater influence than older flankers, a result that may reflect the participants' own-age bias, since all participants were young. This result holds irrespective of gender or race of the faces and is consistent with averaging.

感知取决于上下文。例如，条的感知方向根据其周围定向条的存在而变化。尽管尚不清楚这些上下文的面部效果如何取决于目标脸部周围面孔的类型，但对于更复杂的判断（如面部吸引力或表情），也已经证明了上下文效果。为了检查这一点，我们在周围存在不同年龄的面部的情况下，测量了目标面部的感知年龄（可量化的度量）。使用标准化护照照片的独特数据库，要求参与者估计目标面孔的年龄，该目标面孔可以单独观看，也可以被两个不同的身份侧翼面孔包围。侧翼的面孔比目标面孔年轻，或者都比目标面孔大，侧翼和目标之间的年龄差异各不相同，即±5，±10，±15，±20岁。我们发现，当目标面孔被较年轻的面孔包围时，系统地看起来比单独查看时要年轻，而当目标面孔被较老的面孔包围时，系统地显得比单独查看时要老。出人意料的是，我们发现侧翼对目标感知年龄的影响程度是不对称的，年轻侧翼的影响力要大于老年侧翼，这可能反映了参与者的年龄偏见，因为所有参与者都是年轻的。该结果与性别或面部种族无关，均与平均相符。当它被较老的面孔包围时，系统地看起来比单独查看时要老。出人意料的是，我们发现侧翼对目标感知年龄的影响程度是不对称的，年轻侧翼的影响力要大于老年侧翼，这可能反映了参与者的年龄偏见，因为所有参与者都是年轻的。该结果与性别或面部种族无关，均与平均相符。当它被较老的面孔包围时，系统地看起来比单独查看时要老。出人意料的是，我们发现侧翼对目标感知年龄的影响程度是不对称的，年轻侧翼的影响力要大于老年侧翼，这可能反映了参与者的年龄偏见，因为所有参与者都是年轻的。该结果与性别或面部种族无关，均与平均相符。