PREVIEW

WP8 aims at exploring how culture influences information processing. WP8a is dedicated to documenting how literacy induces neural recycling and neural competition. We will aim at identifying the behavioral correlates of the neural competition between written words and faces, as it raises the intriguing possibility that face perception suffers as reading skills develop. We will compare the ability (relative accuracy and speed) to perform various face tasks in literate and illiterate individuals: matching of unfamiliar faces and control visual patterns (with and without changes in viewing conditions between the stimuli to match), as well as learning and recognition tasks. Then we will test whether literacy modulates face processing in a qualitative manner. WP8b is dedicated to exploring how learning new cultural categories modifies natural categories. To do so, perceptual categorization training studies in children around school age will be used.