The role of spatial and surface cues in the age-processing of unfamiliar faces

Two experiments investigated the importance of spatial and surface cues in the age-processing of unfamiliar faces aged between one and 80 years. Three manipulations known to affect face recognition were used, individually and in various combinations: inversion, negation, and blurring. Faces were pre sented either in whole or in part. Age-estimation performance was largely u naffected by most of these manipulations; age-processing appears to be a hi ghly robust process, due to the numerous cues available. Experiment 1 showe d that, in contrast to face recognition, age-perception appears to be subst antially unimpaired by inversion or negation. Experiment 2 suggests that ag e-estimates can be made on the basis of either surface information (the 2D disposition of the internal facial features, together with texture informat ion) or shape information (head-shape plus feature configuration, as long a s shape-from-shading information is present).