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Early and later experience with one younger sibling affects face processing abilities of 6-year-old children

Available evidence indicates that experience with one face from a specific age group improves face-processing abilities if acquired within the first 3 years of life but not in adulthood. In the current study, we tested whether the effects of early experience endure at age 6 and whether the first 3 years of life are a sensitive period for the effects of experience on perceptual learning. To this end, we compared the effects of early (before age 3) and later (after age 5) experience with one younger sibling on 6-year-olds’ processing of adult and infant faces. Unlike children without siblings, those with a younger sibling were equally skilled at differentiating faces of the two ages and showed a generalized inversion effect for both face ages, irrespective of when exposure to the sibling face began. Results indicate that face representation retains flexibility in response to extensive exposure to one facial identity even after age 3, and perceptual learning engendered by early experience continues to affect face-processing skills at 6 years.