DOI:10.6129/CJP.202109_63(3).0001
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2021, Vol.63, No.3, 225-248

Exploring the Development of Featural and Configural Face Processing in School-age Children and Its Association with Empathy

Yu-Shao Kuo（Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University；Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University）；Sarina Hui-Lin Chien（Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University；Graduate Institute of Neural & Cognitive Sciences, China Medical University）

Abstract

Face perception involves both configural and featural processing. The developmental progression of configural versus featural processing in childhood remains debated. To date, most studies focused on western children; furthermore, the link between face processing and empathy in children is less well-understood. The present study investigated the development of featural and configural processing in Taiwanese children; we also explored the association between individuals’ empathy, gender, and their face recognition performance. We tested 33 Taiwanese adults and 72 7- to 12-year-old children. Each participant received an Empathy Quotient (EQ)questionnaire and a computerized face discrimination task, which included four conditions (by altering a featural or a configural information): change identity, change eyes, widen eye spacing, and move up mouth. The results showed that (1)the accuracy of the “change identity” was the highest, followed by the “change eyes,” the “widen eye spacing,” and the “move up mouth” conditions. (2)Girls performed better than boys, but female and male adults were about equal. (3)Adults performed better than children in almost all conditions, except that the 11-12-year-old girls’ accuracies on the “change eyes” and the “widen eye spacing” conditions were no different from the adults’. (4)Girls had a higher EQ score than boys, but women and men had similar EQ scores, and the correlations were higher with the Caucasian faces. In sum, our study suggests that in school-age children, girls had higher empathy and better face recognition accuracy than boys; 11-12-year-old girls were particularly mature. Meanwhile, the majority of children still performed significantly worse than the adults, meaning that children’s configural and featural face processing continues to improve in adolescence.

Keywords: configural processing; Empathy Quotient (EQ); face perception; featural processing; school-age children