Distinct Neural-Behavioral Correspondence within Face Processing and Attention Networks for the Composite Face Effect

Holistic face processing has been widely implicated in conscious face perception. Yet, little is known about whether holistic face processing occurs when faces are processed unconsciously. The present study used the composite face task and continuous flash suppression (CFS) to inspect whether the processing of target facial information (the top half of a face) is influenced by irrelevant information (the bottom half) that is presented unconsciously. Results of multiple experiments showed that the composite effect was observed in both the monocular and CFS conditions, providing the first evidence that the processing of top facial halves is influenced by the aligned bottom halves no matter whether they are presented consciously or unconsciously. However, much of the composite effect for faces without masking was disrupted when bottom facial parts were rendered with CFS. These results suggest that holistic face processing can occur unconsciously, but also highlight the significance of holistic processing of consciously presented faces.

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Are the facial gender and facial age variants of the composite face illusion products of a common mechanism?

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review ◽

10.3758/s13423-019-01684-9 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 62-69 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Katie L. H. Gray ◽

Yvonne Guillemin ◽

Zarus Cenac ◽

Sophie Gibbons ◽

Tim Vestner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Face Processing ◽

Common Mechanism ◽

Subjective Perception ◽

Age And Gender ◽

Target Region ◽

Holistic Face Processing ◽

Gender Biases ◽

The Face ◽

And Gender ◽

Composite Face

AbstractWhen the upper half of one face (‘target region’) is spatially aligned with the lower half of another (‘distractor region’), the two halves appear to fuse together perceptually, changing observers’ subjective perception of the target region. This ‘composite face illusion’ is regarded as a key hallmark of holistic face processing. Importantly, distractor regions bias observers’ subjective perception of target regions in systematic, predictable ways. For example, male and female distractor regions make target regions appear masculine and feminine; young and old distractor regions make target regions appear younger and older. In the present study, we first describe a novel psychophysical paradigm that yields precise reliable estimates of these perceptual biases. Next, we use this novel procedure to establish a clear relationship between observers’ susceptibility to the age and gender biases induced by the composite face illusion. This relationship is seen in a lab-based sample (N = 100) and is replicated in an independent sample tested online (N = 121). Our findings suggest that age and gender variants of the composite illusion may be different measures of a common structural binding process, with an origin early in the face-processing stream.

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Dissociated neural basis of two behavioral hallmarks of holistic face processing: The whole-part effect and composite-face effect

Neuropsychologia ◽

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.05.026 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 102 ◽

pp. 52-60 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jin Li ◽

Lijie Huang ◽

Yiying Song ◽

Jia Liu

Keyword(s):

Face Processing ◽

Neural Basis ◽

Holistic Face Processing ◽

Composite Face

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Modulation of the composite face effect by unintended emotion cues

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.160867 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 160867 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Katie L. H. Gray ◽

Jennifer Murphy ◽

Jade E. Marsh ◽

Richard Cook

Keyword(s):

Face Processing ◽

Image Matching ◽

Composite Effect ◽

Holistic Face Processing ◽

Feature Information ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

Sequential Matching ◽

Composite Face ◽

Perceived Emotion ◽

Emotion Cues

When upper and lower regions from different emotionless faces are aligned to form a facial composite, observers ‘fuse’ the two halves together, perceptually. The illusory distortion induced by task-irrelevant (‘distractor’) halves hinders participants' judgements about task-relevant (‘target’) halves. This composite-face effect reveals a tendency to integrate feature information from disparate regions of intact upright faces, consistent with theories of holistic face processing. However, observers frequently perceive emotion in ostensibly neutral faces, contrary to the intentions of experimenters. This study sought to determine whether this ‘perceived emotion’ influences the composite-face effect. In our first experiment, we confirmed that the composite effect grows stronger as the strength of distractor emotion increased. Critically, effects of distractor emotion were induced by weak emotion intensities, and were incidental insofar as emotion cues hindered image matching, not emotion labelling per se . In Experiment 2, we found a correlation between the presence of perceived emotion in a set of ostensibly neutral distractor regions sourced from commonly used face databases, and the strength of illusory distortion they induced. In Experiment 3, participants completed a sequential matching composite task in which half of the distractor regions were rated high and low for perceived emotion, respectively. Significantly stronger composite effects were induced by the high-emotion distractor halves. These convergent results suggest that perceived emotion increases the strength of the composite-face effect induced by supposedly emotionless faces. These findings have important implications for the study of holistic face processing in typical and atypical populations.

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Correction to: The role of holistic face processing in acquired prosopagnosia: evidence from the composite face effect

Visual Cognition ◽

10.1080/13506285.2016.1334618 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 24 (5-6) ◽

pp. 379-379

Keyword(s):

Face Processing ◽

Holistic Face Processing ◽

Composite Face

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Decomposing the composite face effect: Evidence for non-holistic processing based on the ex-Gaussian distribution

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1177/1747021820904222 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 73 (6) ◽

pp. 819-840 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Daniel Fitousi

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Reaction Time ◽

Gaussian Distribution ◽

Face Processing ◽

Holistic Processing ◽

Attentional Processes ◽

Memory Processes ◽

Exponential Component ◽

Independent Features ◽

Composite Face

Composite faces fuse the top and bottom halves from two different faces to create a powerful illusion of a novel face. It has been argued that composite faces are processed holistically, namely that the constituent face parts are perceived as a template, rather than independent features. This study sought to uncover the locus of the composite face effect by relating its empirical reaction time distributions to theoretical ex-Gaussian parameters. The results showed that the composite face effect for unfamiliar (Experiment 1) and familiar (Experiment 2) faces is generated by pure changes in the exponential component of the ex-Gaussian distribution. This held true for both partial and complete design measures. The exponential component has been attributed to working memory and attentional processes. The results suggest the involvement of attentional and working memory processes in the composite face effect and in the perception of faces in general. They cast doubts on the holistic nature of face processing. The results also provide important constraints on future computational theories of the effect.

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