Matching identity in images of unfamiliar faces is error prone, but we can easily recognize highly variable images of familiar faces – even images taken decades apart. Recent theoretical development based on computational modelling can account for how we recognize extremely variable instances of the same identity. We provide complementary behavioural data by examining older adults’ representation of older celebrities who were also famous when young. In Experiment 1, participants completed a long-lag repetition priming task in which primes and test stimuli were the same age or different ages. In Experiment 2, participants completed an identity after effects task in which the adapting stimulus was an older or young photograph of one celebrity and the test stimulus was a morph between the adapting identity and a different celebrity; the adapting stimulus was the same age as the test stimulus on some trials (e.g., both old) or a different age (e.g., adapter young, test stimulus old). The magnitude of priming and identity after effects were not influenced by whether the prime and adapting stimulus were the same age or different age as the test face. Collectively, our findings suggest that humans have one common mental representation for a familiar face (e.g., Paul McCartney) that incorporates visual changes across decades, rather than multiple age-specific representations. These findings make novel predictions for state-of-the-art algorithms (e.g., Deep Convolutional Neural Networks).

中文翻译：

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随着熟悉面孔年龄的增长，我们对身份的表征会发生什么变化？启动和身份后效的证据

匹配陌生面孔图像中的身份很容易出错，但我们可以轻松识别熟悉面孔的高度可变图像——即使是相隔数十年拍摄的图像。最近基于计算建模的理论发展可以解释我们如何识别相同身份的极端可变实例。我们通过检查老年人对年轻时也出名的老年名人的表现来提供补充的行为数据。在实验 1 中，参与者完成了一项长时间滞后的重复启动任务，其中启动和测试刺激的年龄相同或不同。在实验 2 中，参与者完成了身份后效应任务，其中适应刺激是一位名人的年长或年轻照片，测试刺激是适应身份和不同名人之间的变形；在某些试验中，适应刺激与测试刺激的年龄相同（例如，两者都老）或不同的年龄（例如，适配器年轻，测试刺激老）。启动和身份后效应的大小不受启动和适应刺激是否与测试面孔相同或不同年龄的影响。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，对于一张熟悉的面孔（例如，保罗·麦卡特尼），人类有一个共同的心理表征，它结合了几十年间的视觉变化，而不是多个特定于年龄的表征。这些发现为最先进的算法（例如，深度卷积神经网络）做出了新的预测。启动和身份后效应的大小不受启动和适应刺激是否与测试面孔相同或不同年龄的影响。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，对于一张熟悉的面孔（例如，保罗·麦卡特尼），人类有一个共同的心理表征，该表征融合了几十年间的视觉变化，而不是多种特定于年龄的表征。这些发现为最先进的算法（例如，深度卷积神经网络）做出了新的预测。启动和身份后效应的大小不受启动和适应刺激是否与测试面孔相同或不同年龄的影响。总的来说，我们的研究结果表明，对于一张熟悉的面孔（例如，保罗·麦卡特尼），人类有一个共同的心理表征，该表征融合了几十年间的视觉变化，而不是多种特定于年龄的表征。这些发现为最先进的算法（例如，深度卷积神经网络）做出了新的预测。