What do children look at in an adult face with which they are personally familiar

Abstract

Adults recognize familiar faces better by their internal than external face parts. It is not clear when children achieve this internal face part advantage, however, previous research has suggested that it emerges after the age of seven years. The present study was the first study to show personally familiar adult faces (school staff) to children aged 5-6, 7-8 and 10-11 years, and we asked the children to identify which faces were familiar. An internal face part advantage was found at all ages.