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Four-year-olds’ sensitivity to differences among faces in the spacing of features was tested under 4 task conditions: judging distinctiveness when the external contour was visible and when it was occluded, simultaneous match-to-sample, and recognizing the face of a friend. In each task, the foil differed only in the spacing of features, and spacing alterations were within normal limits. Children performed at chance levels in all but 1 task—match-to-sample, and in that task, only 10 of 18 children were correct on more than 50% of the trials. Sensitivity to the spacing of facial features in identity and distinctiveness tasks is very weak at 4 years of age—at least when the changes do not exceed ±2.5 SD of normal variability.
