Left-right facial orientation of familiar faces: developmental aspects of « the mere exposure hypothesis ».
1. Front Psychol. 2010 Sep 14;1:39. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00039. eCollection 2010.
Left-right facial orientation of familiar faces: developmental aspects of « the
mere exposure hypothesis ».
Amestoy A(1), Bouvard MP, Cazalets JR.
Author information:
(1)Child Psychiatry Department, Université de Bordeaux Bordeaux, France.
We investigated the developmental aspect of sensitivity to the orientation of
familiar faces by asking 38 adults and 72 children from 3 to 12 years old to make
a preference choice between standard and mirror images of themselves and of
familiar faces, presented side-by-side or successively. When familiar (parental)
faces were presented simultaneously, 3- to 5-year-olds showed no preference, but
by age 5-7 years an adult-like preference for the standard image emerged.
Similarly, the adult-like preference for the mirror image of their own face
emerged by 5-7 years of age. When familiar or self faces were presented
successively, 3- to 7-year-olds showed no preference, and adult-like preference
for the standard image emerged by age 7-12 years. These results suggest the
occurrence of a developmental process in the perception of familiar face
asymmetries which is retained in memory related to knowledge about faces.
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00039
PMCID: PMC3153757
PMID: 21833208