Book excerpt: This book on face perception is one of the most researched areas in infancy and early childhood, because of the enormous information that the face conveys to its viewer, both in terms of the recognition of individuals and in the expressive information that faces convey. It remains a complex area, but a number of theoretical issues have emerged which motivate much of the current research. This book describes many of these issues, and also presents some empirical research findings to illustrate the ways in which researchers carry out their investigations.