Ensemble coding of faces occurs in children and develops dissociably from coding of individual faces.

Ensemble coding allows adults to access useful information about average properties of groups, sometimes even in the absence of detailed representations of individual group members. This form of coding may emerge early in development with initial reports of ensemble coding for simple properties (size, numerosity) in young children and even infants. Here we demonstrate that ensemble coding of faces, which provides information about average properties of social groups, is already present in 6-8-year-old children. This access to average information increases with age from 6 to 18 years and its development is dissociable from age-related improvements in the coding of individual face identities. This dissociation provides the first direct evidence that distinct processes underlie ensemble and individual coding of face identity, evidence that has been lacking from adult studies. More generally, our results add to the emerging evidence for impressively mature sensitivity to statistical properties of the visual environment in children. They indicate that children have access to gist information about social groups that may facilitate adaptive social behaviour.

Individual differences in adaptive norm-based coding and holistic coding are associated yet each contributes uniquely to unfamiliar face recognition ability.

We can discriminate and recognize many faces, despite their visual similarity. Individual differences in this ability have been linked to 2 face coding mechanisms: adaptive norm-based coding of identity and holistic coding. However, it is not yet known whether these mechanisms are distinct. Nor is it known whether they make unique contributions to face recognition ability because no studies have measured the operation of both these mechanisms in the same individuals. We measured individual differences in both the strength of adaptive norm-based coding (with a face identity aftereffect task) and holistic coding (with a composite face task). For the first time, we show that these 2 mechanisms are positively and moderately associated and that each makes significant unique contributions to unfamiliar face recognition ability (Cambridge Face Memory Test [CMFT]). Importantly, these relationships were face-specific. We also show that the combined contribution of these mechanisms to face recognition performance is significantly larger than the contribution of nonface recognition memory, consistent with the view that face recognition relies on the operation of face-sensitive mechanisms. Overall, our results raise intriguing questions regarding what these mechanisms may have in common, and what other mechanisms support face recognition performance. (PsycINFO Database Record