ABSTRACT

It is well-documented that face perception – including facial expression and identity recognition ability – declines with age. To date, however, it is not yet well understood whether this age-related decline reflects face-specific effects, or instead can be accounted for by well-known declines in general intelligence. We examined this issue using a relatively large, healthy, age-diverse (18-88 years) sample (N = 595) who were assessed on well-established measures of face perception and general intelligence. Replicating previous work, we observed that facial expression recognition, facial identity recognition, and general intelligence all showed declines with age. Of importance, the age-related decline of expression and identity recognition was present even when the effects of general intelligence were statistically controlled. Moreover, facial expression and identity ability each showed significant unique associations with age. These results indicate that face perception ability becomes poorer as we age, and that this decline is to some extent relatively focal in nature. Results are in line with a hierarchical structure of face perception ability, and suggest that age appears to have independent effects on the general and specific face processing levels within this structure.

摘要

有充分证据表明，面部感知——包括面部表情和身份识别能力——会随着年龄的增长而下降。然而，迄今为止，尚不清楚这种与年龄相关的下降是反映了面部特定的影响，还是可以通过众所周知的一般智力下降来解释。我们使用一个相对较大、健康、年龄多样化（18-88 岁）的样本（N = 595) 对面部感知和一般智力的完善措施进行了评估。复制之前的工作，我们观察到面部表情识别、面部身份识别和一般智力都随着年龄的增长而下降。重要的是，即使在统计上控制了一般智力的影响时，也存在与年龄相关的表达和身份识别的下降。此外，面部表情和身份能力均与年龄显示出显着的独特关联。这些结果表明，随着年龄的增长，面部感知能力变得越来越差，而且这种下降在某种程度上是相对集中的。结果符合人脸感知能力的层次结构，