Exploring the Williams Syndrome Face-Processing Debate: The Importance of Building Developmental Trajectories - Essay Example

A Critical Review of "Exploring the Williams syndrome face-processing debate: the importance of building developmental trajectories" Summary The pastdecade has seen an increasing rise in interest and need for resolving the topic of face processing in Williams syndrome (WS). The early findings about the normally developing face-processing module were questioned by studies proposing that WS patients used a different balance of cognitive processing from controls, even when their behavioural scores were in the normal range. However, some recent studies have proposed that the face processing of WS patients are exactly like normal individuals. In the present paper, an attempt to resolve the ongoing debate on WS face processing was made by means of three experiments. In specific, developmental trajectories from childhood to adolescence/adulthood were made for two of the experiments. In the first experiment photos of real faces were used as stimuli. Although, the accuracy exhibited by all the groups was broadly same, the WS subjects performed worse in configural condition when faces were upright and were less sensitive than controls to face inversion. The second experiment made an attempt to measure the face processing ability by making use of a storybook. The results showed that the effect of face inversion was significant in control group but not so in the WS patients. The study also revealed a possibility of different developmental patterns of face processing in the two groups. The findings of the experiment 3 reported a configural-processing deficit in WS patients with respect to their chronological age (CA) and the performance level. The study had made use of schematic faces and non-face stimuli and had brought forth an unexpected finding on the comparison of the accuracy data in the simultaneous vs. sequentially presented conditions. It was observed in the simultaneous condition that the control group responded more accurately to configurally transformed faces than to the ones which were featurally transformed. William syndrome is a rare, genetically based syndrome in which around 25 genes are deleted on one copy of chromosome 7. This genetic deficit results in cognitive impairment (usually mild mental retardation) and in spatial cognition, number, planning, and problem solving. The IQ scores of the William syndrome patients usually fall in the range of 50s and 60s. The affect of William syndrome on the language and face processing domains is the area of prominent interest to the experts in the field of cognitive sciences. Experiment 1: Investigating configural and featural processing of real faces The study was aimed to assess the hypotheses which puts forth the scientific idea that- "If there has occurred normal development of face recognition in WS patients, then they need to present comparable accuracy to control in the discrimination of target face from a featurally or configurally transformed version of the target. Also to add, if the WS face processing has developed to normal level then performance should be equally influenced by the inversion and the nature of transformation (Karmiloff-Smith, A., et al., 2004). To test the above hypotheses, fourteen participants with WS were tested using the competitive test design developed by Mondloch and colleagues (Mondloch, Le Grand, & Maurer, 2002). Two of the fourteen were dropped because of the presence of significant difficulty to understand the test. To the remaining 12 participants of the study trial, the method employed for language ability assessment was the Peabody Picture Vocabulary test (Dunn & Dunn, 1981) and for visuospatial ability assessment was the Pattern Construction Subtest of the British Abilities Scale (Elliot, Smith, & McCulloch, 1996). On the basis of chronological age, gender and socioeconomic status, a control group was individually matched to each participant in the WS group. A photo of a real face was used to create featural and configural sets of new faces, and acted as the stimuli. In an attempt to realize by experiment means the ability of WS face processing, intellect was used to give birth to creation of new faces. These new faces were created by replacing the original features say of eyes and mouth with the features of different faces. The configural set for experimentation was prepared by making movements in upward and downward direction within the face contour, or movements that result in placing closer together or little apart with respect to the original positions of the facial features. The procedure consisted of a test for direct differentiation between featural and configuring processing of real faces. In a sequential manner presentation of two faces was made in front of the WS group and the control group. The subjects were questioned about the similarity and differences between the two faces. The subjects were then presented to the same two faces after being subjected to inversion, and feature or configural alteration. The trials were blocked and the subjects were motivated to bring to practice specific face-processing strategies (Mondloch et al., 2002). The session of testing was inclusive of 12 practice trials, to be confident that all the subjects were subjected to the thorough understanding of the instructions and meaning of the two crucial words 'same' and 'different'. Each subject was brought in the intimacy of the computer laptop with 30 trials from the featural and configural sets respectively. For all the participants, the presentation of the upright block was always before the inverted block. The order of configural and featural blocks within these was counterbalanced. Although, the accuracy exhibited by all the groups was broadly same, the WS subjects performed worse in configural condition when faces were upright and were less sensitive than controls to face inversion. Experiment 2: Face recognition in a story-supported task The experiment 2 made use of a task that encompassed the recognition of inverted faces in the storybook. It was a more naturalistic presentation and was aimed at bringing to knowledge the progressive developmental emergence of the inversion effect. For the purpose of the study, seventeen adolescent and adult WS patients were tested. The data from 111 control group children was also analyzed. The stimuli presented were taken from Brace et al. (2001). The stimuli consisted of two important parts, the storybook and the computer game. During the first part of the experiment, the subjects were made to listen to a story of the two boys and to repeat their names after the experimenter. After the completion of this interesting first part, the participants were encouraged to play a computer game of finding the lost boy. The experiment consisted of eight trials, including two practice trials. The results showed that the effect of face inversion was significant in control group but not so in the WS patients. The study also revealed a possibility of different developmental patterns of face processing in the two groups. Experiment 3: Configural and featural processing of schematic stimuli The purpose of the experiment was to test the configural and featural processing of schematic stimuli in adult WS patients. Each trial consisted of a target pattern, which was followed by or presented simultaneously with two test patterns. The Difference Detection task consisted of many test patterns, which were made by creating featural and configural changes in the target pattern. One of the test pattern was same as that of the target pattern and the detection of this difference formed the basis of the experiment. In the Judgement Preference task, the two test patterns consisted of one featurally and the other configurally transformed version of the target pattern. For both tasks, the subject was required to answer at the earliest possible time, as to which test pattern held the least similarity from the target pattern. The stimuli consisted of two blocks of 48 trials. The first block had sequential presentation while the second block had simultaneous presentation. The subjects were presented with 16 geometric pattern trials, 16 scrambled, and 16 systematic faces. The order of the block remained same for all subjects subjected to the experimentation trial. Within each block, in a randomized fashion, 8-difference detection and 8 judgement preference trials were presented. The dependent variables for the Difference Detection trials were response time, and the accuracy of response, while for Judgement Preference trials it was the number of featural responses. The results were analyzed by building and comparing task-specific cross-sectional developmental trajectories for the control and the WS group. The findings reported a configural-processing deficit in WS patients with respect to their chronological age (CA) and the performance level. The study had made use of schematic faces and non-face stimuli and had brought forth an unexpected finding on the comparison of the Psychology is the science gaining fast development each day. And as we know science never solves a problem before creating ten more, there is increased need of research and application of knowledge to the various areas of psychology. The cognitive science, a significant component of the study of psychology is of crucial importance in the knowing of human behaviour. The manner and ways of cognitive development can be essential not only in the diagnosis of mental diseases and disorders but can also form essential steps to the knowing of the probable treatment methods. Psychology in its present knowledge form is adding to one of the most scientific division of science- the medical science. In order to enjoy the same stand as medical science and as any other science; research, study and scientific interpretations are essential. Psychology realizes the need of scientific research and therefore advances itself by the addition of each new scientific and well-designed research of its different study aspects. The research paper under the consideration of our present critical review too has helped substantiate the stand of psychology as a scientific field. It's no more "soft" the study of psychology, the research minds with significant research contributions in a scientific manner with the basis of research have presented psychology the stand of being a scientific study in the eyes of medical practitioners and many others. When we bring our focus to William syndrome in specific, we find that it is a disorder of which the scientific discipline has very little knowledge and knows no treatment. Thus, research in this area is essential and demanding. As we know, most of the face processing studies of William syndrome held the disadvantage of unspecific and interchangeable usage of terms like global/gestalt/holistic/figural/local/componential/piecemeal/featured/analytical versus configured. In the present research paper, the usage of the term 'featural' was used with application specificity to refer to the ability to identify faces based on individual features (eg. eyes, nose, mouth, chin, etc). Also, the usage of the term 'configural' was used specifically to the ability to differentiate faces based on sensitivity to the spatial distances amongst internal features. Where on one hand, configural face processing is associated with maturity of face recognition encoding and developed recognition ability in adults, the term 'holistic' has its focus to cover the gluing together of facial features into a gestalt. The usage of the correct word in the right context has always been a crucial need of good research communication and presentation. Also, the synonymous usage of the dissimilar words in the research paper poses a problem of interpretation and application. This important feature was put forth with positive approach in the discussed paper. The usage of precise and appropriate terminology has certainly added to the quality of knowledge added by the present paper to the William syndrome disease and also to the field of Psychology. In the third experiment configural and featural processing of schematic stimuli, a unique and unexpected finding was brought to knowledge. The essential finding was born by virtue of the comparison of the accuracy data in the simultaneous vs. sequentially presented conditions. It was observed that in the simultaneous condition, that the control group responded more accurately to configurally transformed faces than to the ones which were featurally transformed. This same observation had its absence in case of geometric patterns and sequential conditions. The analysis of the sequential condition revealed an interaction of transformation type with age. This was observed by the less accurate detection of configural transformations than featural transformations. This observation level showed a decrease with increasing age. This observation raises a possibility of more easier emergence of configural expertise of face processing in simultaneous presentation under low memory load conditions as compared to the sequential presentation in typically developing children . This idea poses an area for further research and investigation. A further research can help realize the accuracy and applicability of this unexpected observation. Because of the presence of a low sample size, the correctiveness of the observation cannot be commented with confidence. Conclusion The three research experiments presented by Karmiloff-Smith and colleagues form undoubtedly a competitive and well-designed attempt to resolve the present controversies in the area of face processing in WS. Except, for the presence of a relatively small sample size and absence of the task-specific developmental trajectory for the all the three experiments, the method and designing of the research was good. The scientific community could have benefited more from the present research, if the number of trials, patient size and observed responses were increased to a greater level. However, even with the present sample size and method adopted, the procedures stand as a good contribution to the studies of WS. It sets lines for further more competitive research on face processing development in WS patients. References: Brace, N.A., Hole, G.J., Kemp, R., Pike, G., Duuren, M., & Norgate, L. (2001). Developmental changes in the effect of inversion: Using a picture book to investigate face recognition. Perception, 30, 85-94 Dunn L.M., & Dunn L.M. (1981). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised. Minnesota: American Guidance Service. Dunn, L.M., Whetton, C., & Pintilie, D. (1997). British Picture Vocabulary Scale. Windsor, UK: NFER-Nelson. Elliot, C.D., Smith, P., & McCulloch, K. (1996). British Ability Scales. NFER-Nelson, Windsor, UK. Karmiloff-Smith, A., Thomas, M., Annaz, D., Humphreys, K., Ewing, S., Brace, N., Duuren,M., Pike, G., Grice, S., & Campbell, R. (2004).Exploring the Williams syndrome face-processing debate: the importance of building developmental trajectories. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45, 1258-1274. Mondloch, C.J., Le Grand, R., & Maurer, D. (2002). Configural face processing develops more slowly than featural face processing. Perception, 31, 553-566. Read More