Facial recognition during early motherhood: Investigating the persistence of age and affect biases

Abstract

Converging evidence demonstrates increased levels of sensitivity to infant faces in mothers. This may be reflective of a series of psychological and neurobiological changes that occur in the transition to, and during early, parenthood for the purpose of appropriate caregiving; however, this enhanced infant facial recognition is in contrast with the general adult literature regarding facial processing. In the current study, we aimed to replicate a prior study of emotion facial recognition in pregnant women in a sample of mothers with children under a year old, utilizing a paradigm in which adult and infant faces gradually changed from neutral expressions to either happy or sad expressions. Mothers were faster at the recognition of adult faces in comparison to infant faces, and were also faster at happy faces in comparison to sad faces. Results are discussed in context of the current processing literature regarding the perinatal period, and implications for the persistence of the own-age bias and happy face advantage are considered.

Keywords: Emotion recognition; Facial recognition; Happy face advantage; Motherhood; Own-age bias; Postpartum.