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Running Head: FACE RECOGNITION IN A NEWBORN VISUAL SYSTEM 1 Sensitive, specific, and generative face recognition in a newborn visual system Samantha M. Waters (In collaboration with Justin N. Wood) University of Southern California
Object Description
Title | Sensitive, specific, and generative face recognition in a newborn visual system |
Author | Waters, Samantha M. |
Author email | samantha.waters@usc.edu;samantha.waters@gmail.com |
Degree | Master of Arts |
Document type | Thesis |
Degree program | Psychology |
School | College of Letters, Arts And Sciences |
Date defended/completed | 2012-10-08 |
Date submitted | 2013-04-15 |
Date approved | 2013-04-18 |
Restricted until | 2013-04-18 |
Date published | 2013-04-18 |
Advisor (committee member) |
Bechara, Antoine Tjan, Bosco S. Mintz, Toben H. |
Abstract | Despite the computational difficulty, adults easily recognize faces with incredibly high sensitivity and specificity across novel changes in viewing conditions. Mature face representations are invariant to identity-preserving changes (e.g., changes in expression or viewing angle) while intolerant to identity-transforming changes (e.g., changes in texture, age, and gender). Yet, due to constraints in testing newborn subjects, the origins of these characteristics remain unknown. Are highly sensitive, specific, and generative face representations the product of extensive visual experience, or do genes build neural machinery that generates sensitive, specific, and generative face representations from the onset of experience with faces? To probe the nature of the first face representation created in the newborn mind, we reared newborn chickens for one week in a virtual reality chamber that contained no objects except a single virtual human face (the “Virtual Parent”). Immediately after, the chickens were tested for one week on their ability to discriminate between the Virtual Parent and a set of distractor faces. Distractors were identical to the Virtual Parent, with the exception of a single dimension (e.g., changes in texture, structure, inversion, and expressions). Subjects were able to distinguish the Virtual Parent from distractors that differed in texture, age, gender, and inversion, but not distractors that differed in feature configuration or facial expression. Further, subjects were able to recognize the Virtual Parent across novel changes in head orientation (i.e., view direction), indicating that subjects built invariant face representations. These results show that the first face representation built by the newborn visual system can be sensitive, specific, and generative. |
Keyword | cognition; face recognition; chicken; development; early experience |
Language | English |
Format (imt) | application/pdf |
Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
Type | texts |
Legacy record ID | usctheses-m |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Rights | Waters, Samantha M. |
Physical access | The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given. |
Repository name | University of Southern California Digital Library |
Repository address | USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA |
Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
Filename | etd-WatersSama-1548.pdf |
Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume7/etd-WatersSama-1548.pdf |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
Full text | Running Head: FACE RECOGNITION IN A NEWBORN VISUAL SYSTEM 1 Sensitive, specific, and generative face recognition in a newborn visual system Samantha M. Waters (In collaboration with Justin N. Wood) University of Southern California |