Does within-person variability in learning faces eliminate own-age bias in remembering faces?

Abstract

The own-age bias is the finding that memory is better for faces that are similar in age to the rememberer than other-age faces. This experiment investigated whether exposure to increased variability when learning faces reduces own-age bias in remembering those faces. Previous research suggested that own-age faces are remembered better than other-age faces because they are learned on an individual level instead of a categorical level. As such, a manipulation that promotes individuation, such as exposure to high within-person variability, should reduce own-age bias. Previous research employed various methods to encourage individuation of other-age faces and found mixed results. I hypothesized that if high variability encourages individuation, then own-age bias should be reduced when faces are learned in a high variability context. To test this, participants were randomly assigned to three between-subjects learning conditions a) no-variability b) low-variability, c) high-variability, and two within-subjects conditions a) own-age, b) other-age. Face recognition was tested using a “seen” or “not seen” task. Similar to previous research, individuals were more accurate at recognizing own-age faces than other-age faces. Accuracy for both own- and other-age faces was best for those who trained with high variability images. Although not significant, the results suggested that own-age bias may actually have been larger for faces seen with high variability.