Men s And Women s Neural Coding Of Face Gender - 1317 Words

Introduction In this gender aftereffect study, the aim of the research is to examine individual differences in men’s and women’s neural coding of face gender. It aims to explore differences in young male and female adults in their adaptability to face gender. The magnitude of the gender aftereffect was measured to assess variability across young adult men and women. Specifically, to replicate gender aftereffects in a large sample of psychology undergraduates and to test whether there is a relationship between perceiver gender and the magnitude of gender aftereffects. This experiment aimed to establish if we are all equally adaptable or if there is individual variation in how we adapt to features like face gender. Differences in†¦show more content†¦For example a face that has been altered to appear more feminine, could make a neutral face appear more masculine in comparison. Studies have suggesedt that these after-effects reflect how humans neural mechanisms perceive objects and faces. (Webster et al., 2004). Most studies find high levels of statistical overlap between the male and female distributions and further research and meta-analysis study may lead to more conclusive results. This study, according to the hypothesis above, will contradict this theory that males and females will show similar gender aftereffect results and further support the gender aftereffect theory. (Del Guidice., 2009) Evidence supports that just after 150ms of exposure, perceivers can process face gender. Under normal viewing, human perceivers are neatly 100 percent accurate when categorizing gender. The perceptual systems adapts to recent context, which leads to aftereffects that can alter the appearance of subsequent faces. Adaption to a certain gender cause faces to appear oppositely masculine or feminine to previous stimuli. A special capacity for face perception might reflect specialized neural subsystem developed through extensive experience with faces. This study explores whether there are differences between genders when it comes to this perception because of varying factors including phenotypic, hormonal and social differences. It is also argued that gender differences could be attributed to social