Recent research conducted by Pennsylvania State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Suzy Scherf suggests that facial recognition transforms as adolescents transition into adulthood. That is, Scherf identifies puberty, not age, as refining one’s ability to recognize faces.
Since the late nineteenth century, research concerning the importance of facial recognition has been a major area of inquiry in the field of psychology. American psychologist Paul Ekman initially popularized the topic as he pursued studies into nonverbal communication and behavior. Ekman postulated that emotions were “evolved traits universal to the human species” and pursued studies demonstrating a series of six universal facial expressions interpreted alike by almost all cultures. Facial expressions provided a method of relaying these emotions he deemed critical to daily human interactions.
Ekman’s research demonstrated the significance of facial expressions as receptacles of information concerning emotion, well-being, age and personality. Scherf’s research extends the implications of Ekman’s research by demonstrating that the ability to interpret and recognize facial expressions is retuned during the transitional period of puberty. Scherf showed that adolescent facial recognition evolves from the childhood bias toward adult, specifically female faces to the preference for peers’ faces that match their own stage of development during adolescence and puberty.
In her paper, Scherf argues that this transitional period is significant in assisting adolescents as they adopt adult social roles. Anatomic and physiological changes underlying this psychological shift includes influx of hormones and reorganization of the nervous system, both of which transform during puberty.
The experiment used to yield these conclusions involved the recruitment of 116 adolescents of the same age sorted into four groups based on their stage of puberty. This allowed the researchers to focus on the role of puberty and not age on facial recognition. Presenting the subjects with photographs of male and female faces of various pubertal stages, the researchers later retested the subjects’ ability to recognize the previously seen faces upon introduction of a new population of faces.
Scherf noticed two different trends. First, pre-pubescent children remembered adult faces. Scherf identified this phenomenon as the “caregiver bias,” since these children seemed to be biased to have a better memory of adult faces. Second, Scherf identified that adolescents more commonly remembered other adolescent faces, therefore showing a “peer bias.” More generally, Scherf concluded that adolescents at various pubertal stages would recognize the face of an individual of the same pubertal stage. Socialization into society as an adult offers a potential explanation for Scherf’s findings, as adolescents transition to adopt more mature social roles.
Scherf’s research has implications on multiple aspects of behavioral science and psychology research. That is, recognizing the retuned facial recognition of pubertal adolescents can help further the understanding of how puberty affects the developing nervous system and behavior with maturity and mental health.
These results could have an impact on future mental health treatment and public health policy regarding adolescents. Scherf’s research also invites researchers to gain further insight into understanding how hormones and nervous system reorganization during puberty evolves behavior to equip adolescents for adulthood.
