Ensemble coding of faces occurs in children and develops dissociably from coding of individual faces.

Ensemble coding allows adults to access useful information about average properties of groups, sometimes even in the absence of detailed representations of individual group members. This form of coding may emerge early in development with initial reports of ensemble coding for simple properties (size, numerosity) in young children and even infants. Here we demonstrate that ensemble coding of faces, which provides information about average properties of social groups, is already present in 6-8-year-old children.

Individual differences in adaptive norm-based coding and holistic coding are associated yet each contributes uniquely to unfamiliar face recognition ability.

We can discriminate and recognize many faces, despite their visual similarity. Individual differences in this ability have been linked to 2 face coding mechanisms: adaptive norm-based coding of identity and holistic coding. However, it is not yet known whether these mechanisms are distinct.