Lindsey Short

Email: ls08ts@brocku.ca

Focus: Lifespan Development

Thesis Advisor: Cathy Mondloch

Undergraduate Degree: B.A. in psychology, Wittenberg University

Research interests:
Broadly, I am interested in the development of the face prototype(s) and the way in which social categorical distinctions in the absence of salient physical differences may potentially influence our perception of faces. Past research has demonstrated that adults code faces in reference to distinct face prototypes (averages), which represent the different face categories (e.g., race, sex) encountered in the environment. However, little is known about the way in which young children process and categorize faces. Using a child-friendly adaptation method, I am currently examining simple and opposing attractiveness aftereffects in 5-year-old children. That is, by repeatedly exposing 5-year-olds to distorted faces, can we systematically shift their perceptions of attractiveness?

Additionally, I am interested in the role of social psychological factors in the elicitation of category-contingent opposing face aftereffects. Social context and factors such as in-group biases are often overlooked in what are primarily considered perceptual phenomena and may significantly influence both the strength and emergence of opposing face aftereffects.

Publications:

Anes, M.D., & Short, L.A. (2009). Adult-like competence in perceptual encoding of facial configuration by the right hemisphere emerges after 10 years of age. Perception, 38(3), 333-342.

Conference Presentations :

Mondloch, C.J., Hatry, A.J., & Short, L.A. (2009, May). The development of face prototypes: Evidence for simple and opposing aftereffects in children. Poster presented at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL.

Short, L.A., Longfield, D.H., Talvitie, P., & Mondloch, C.J. (2009, May). Forgetting faces in a crowd: Faster memory decay for other-race faces? Poster presented at the Ninth Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL.

Anes, M.D., Short, L.A., Storer, J., & Del Grosso, N. (2008, May). Hemispheric specialization for face processing revealed by use of Thatcherized and feature distorted faces. Poster presented at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Vision Sciences Society, Naples, FL.

Short, L.A., & Anes, M.D. (2008, April). Hemispheric specialization for sensitivity to facial configuration in children ages 8 to 13 and adults. Poster presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Salisbury University, MD.