Face perception across the adult lifespan: evidence for age-related changes independent of general intelligence

ABSTRACT

It is well-documented that face perception – including facial expression and identity recognition ability – declines with age. To date, however, it is not yet well understood whether this age-related decline reflects face-specific effects, or instead can be accounted for by well-known declines in general intelligence. We examined this issue using a relatively large, healthy, age-diverse (18-88 years) sample (N = 595) who were assessed on well-established measures of face perception and general intelligence. Replicating previous work, we observed that facial expression recognition, facial identity recognition, and general intelligence all showed declines with age. Of importance, the age-related decline of expression and identity recognition was present even when the effects of general intelligence were statistically controlled. Moreover, facial expression and identity ability each showed significant unique associations with age. These results indicate that face perception ability becomes poorer as we age, and that this decline is to some extent relatively focal in nature. Results are in line with a hierarchical structure of face perception ability, and suggest that age appears to have independent effects on the general and specific face processing levels within this structure.

KEYWORDS:

• Face emotion recognition
• face identity recognition
• general intelligence
• age
• individual differences

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) research group for allowing us access to their data, as well as the respondents and their primary care teams in Cambridge for their participation in the Cam-CAN study. The Cam-CAN research was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (grant number BB/H008217/1).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Face perception across the adult lifespan: Evidence for age-related changes independent of general intelligence. The data analysed in this study were collected by the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) (Shafto et al., 2014) and are available upon application from the original authors at www.cam-can.org.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [grant number BB/H008217/1].