DOI: 10.6129/CJP.20161008
中華心理學刊 民105，58卷，4期，233-262
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2016, Vol.58, No.4, 233-262

Ya-Hsin Cheng（Department of Psychology, Leiden University；Department of Psychology and Center for Research in Cognitive Sciences, National Chung Cheng University）；Gary Chon-Wen Shyi（Department of Psychology and Center for Research in Cognitive Sciences, National Chung Cheng University；Advanced Institute of Manufacturing with High-Tech Innovations, National Chung Cheng University）；Kuan-Hao Cheng（Department of Psychology and Center for Research in Cognitive Sciences, National Chung Cheng University）

Abstract

The main goal of the present study was threefold: (1) to establish a test that utilizes face images collected and normed in the Taiwanese society in order to provide a culturally calibrated tool for assessing face memory ability, (2) to examine the relationship between face memory performance and a range of face processing tasks to reveal underlying mechanisms that may play an important role in face memory, and (3) to investigate the relationship between age differences in face memory performance and those in holistic processing as revealed by the face processing tasks. To create the Taiwanese face memory test (TFMT), we followed the procedure of Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT), and used images from a Taiwanese face database. Like CFMT, TFMT was administered in three stages with increasing difficulty. The results of TFMT revealed a pattern almost identical to that found with CFMT (Study 1). In addition, younger adults outperformed older adults in TFMT as well as in all three face processing tasks (Studies 2 & 3). Furthermore, while younger adults exhibited reliable
inversion effects in both component and configural tasks, older adults failed to do so except for the oldest subgroup showing inversion effect in the configural task. In contrast, older adults exhibited a pattern of interaction between alignment and congruency similar to that found with younger adults for the composite task, demonstrating both age groups can process faces holistically. Regression analyses on the relationship between face memory and face processing performances for both age groups revealed that, while each face processing task has its own share of holistic processing, they may be tapping into different aspects of holistic processing. Moreover, holistic processing captured by the component task and its inversion effect, entailing subtle spatial relationship between local facial features and landmarks, may underlie face memory performance for both younger and older adults in Taiwan. Taken together, besides showcasing distinct styles or strategies between younger and older adults in coping with the specific demands of each face processing task, our findings suggest
that our participants, both young and old, appeared to rely upon the same aspects of holistic and non-holistic processing revealed by the component task, for encoding and later retrieving memory for faces.

Keywords: age differences, face memory, face processing, face recognition