A comparison of the literatures on how infants represent generic object classes, gender and race information in faces, and emotional expressions reveals both common and distinctive developments in the three domains. In addition, the review indicates that some very basic questions remain to be answered regarding how infants represent facial displays of emotion, including (a) whether infants form category representations for discrete classes of emotion, (b) when and how such representations come to incorporate affective meaning, (c) the developmental trajectory for (...) representation of emotional expression at different levels of inclusiveness (i.e., from broad to narrow or narrow to broad?), and (d) whether there is superior discrimination ability operating within more frequently experienced emotion categories. (shrink)

A comparison of the literatures on how infants represent generic object classes, gender and race information in faces, and emotional expressions reveals both common and distinctive developments in the three domains. In addition, the review indicates that some very basic questions remain to be answered regarding how infants represent facial displays of emotion, including (a) whether infants form category representations for discrete classes of emotion, (b) when and how such representations come to incorporate affective meaning, (c) the developmental trajectory for (...) representation of emotional expression at different levels of inclusiveness (i.e., from broad to narrow or narrow to broad?), and (d) whether there is superior discrimination ability operating within more frequently experienced emotion categories. (shrink)

This article focuses on the corresponding research findings pertaining to developmental changes throughout infancy to adolescence in processing various bits of face trait information. It examines whether faces are indeed a special class of stimuli. The role of experience in developing species-specific face expertise and standards of attractiveness are discussed. The research on infants' and children's categorization of different face types aids in exploring how the development of face categorization is influenced by experience. The article reviews evidence concerning the development (...) of face identity discrimination and recognition and more specifically the controversy regarding whether such development undergoes a qualitative change during childhood. It deals with infants and children's use of three types of facial information: featural information, configural information, and holistic information. (shrink)