Configural Face Processing: A Meta-Analytic Survey

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p6928 ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (12) ◽  
pp. 1478-1490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Bruyer
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Superiority Effect ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Counting Approach ◽  
The Face ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Negative Face ◽  
Composite Face ◽  
Vote Counting

In the field of face processing, the configural hypothesis is defended by many researchers. It is often claimed that this thesis is robustly supported by a large number of experiments exploring the face-inversion effect, the composite face effect, the face superiority effect, and the negative face effect. However, this claim is generally based on a rudimentary and approximate vote-counting approach. In this paper, I use meta-analyses to examine the relevant literature in more depth. The analysis supports the vote-counting argument.

Face Inversion Effect Emerges Under Critical Configural Discrepancy

2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jisien Yang ◽  
Adrian Schwaninger
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Underlying Mechanism ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Configural Processing ◽  
Major Contributor ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Configural Information ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
The Face

Configural processing has been considered the major contributor to the face inversion effect (FIE) in face recognition. However, most researchers have only obtained the FIE with one specific ratio of configural alteration. It remains unclear whether the ratio of configural alteration itself can mediate the occurrence of the FIE. We aimed to clarify this issue by manipulating the configural information parametrically using six different ratios, ranging from 4% to 24%. Participants were asked to judge whether a pair of faces were entirely identical or different. The paired faces that were to be compared were presented either simultaneously (Experiment 1) or sequentially (Experiment 2). Both experiments revealed that the FIE was observed only when the ratio of configural alteration was in the intermediate range. These results indicate that even though the FIE has been frequently adopted as an index to examine the underlying mechanism of face processing, the emergence of the FIE is not robust with any configural alteration but dependent on the ratio of configural alteration.

scholarly journals Are the face inversion effect and the composite face effect mediated by different spatial frequencies?

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 534-534
Author(s):  
V. Willenbockel ◽  
D. Fiset ◽  
M. Arguin ◽  
F. Lepore ◽  
F. Gosselin
Keyword(s):  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
Spatial Frequencies ◽  
The Face ◽  
Composite Face

scholarly journals Face pareidolia in the brain: Impact of gender and orientation

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0244516
Author(s):  
Marina A. Pavlova ◽  
Valentina Romagnano ◽  
Andreas J. Fallgatter ◽  
Alexander N. Sokolov
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Image Plane ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Young Females ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Face Images ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Neuropsychiatric Conditions

Research on face sensitivity is of particular relevance during the rapidly evolving Covid-19 pandemic leading to social isolation, but also calling for intact interaction and sharing. Humans possess high sensitivity even to a coarse face scheme, seeing faces in non-face images where real faces do not exist. The advantage of non-face images is that single components do not trigger face processing. Here by implementing a novel set of Face-n-Thing images, we examined (i) how face tuning alters with changing display orientation, and (ii) whether it is affected by observers’ gender. Young females and males were presented with a set of Face-n-Thing images either with canonical upright orientation or inverted 180° in the image plane. Face impression was substantially impeded by display inversion. Furthermore, whereas with upright display orientation, no gender differences were found, with inversion, Face-n-Thing images elicited face impression in females significantly more often. The outcome sheds light on the origins of the face inversion effect in general. Moreover, the findings open a way for examination of face sensitivity and underwriting brain networks in neuropsychiatric conditions related to the current pandemic (such as depression and anxiety), most of which are gender/sex-specific.

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69 ◽  
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.

The Face-Inversion Effect as a Deficit in the Encoding of Configural Information: Direct Evidence

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p3012 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejo Freire ◽  
Kang Lee ◽  
Lawrence A Symons
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Matching To Sample ◽  
Delayed Matching ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Configural Information ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
The Face ◽  
Repeated Experiment

We report four experiments leading to conclusions that: (i) the face-inversion effect is mainly due to the deficits in processing of configural information from inverted faces; and (ii) this effect occurs primarily at the encoding stage of face processing, rather than at the storage stage. In experiment 1, participants discriminated upright faces differing primarily in configuration with 81% accuracy. Participants viewing the same faces presented upside down scored only 55%. In experiment 2, the corresponding discrimination rates for faces differing mainly in featural information were 91% (upright) and 90% (inverted). In experiments 3 and 4, the same faces were used in a memory paradigm. In experiment 3, a delayed matching-to-sample task was used, in which upright-face pairs differed either in configuration or features. Recognition rates were comparable to those for the corresponding upright faces in the discrimination tasks in experiments 1 and 2. However, there was no effect of delay (1 s, 5 s, or 10 s). In experiment 4, we repeated experiment 3, this time with inverted faces. Results were comparable to those of inverted conditions in experiments 1 and 2, and again there was no effect of delay. Together these results suggest that an ‘encoding bottleneck’ for configural information may be responsible for the face-inversion effect in particular, and memory for faces in general.

scholarly journals There's a Time and a Face: The Time Course of Composite Face Processing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Lynch ◽  
Xue Jun Cheng ◽  
Daniel R. Little
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Processing Time ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Holistic Processing ◽  
Response Signal ◽  
The Face ◽  
Task Recognition ◽  
Speed Accuracy ◽  
Composite Face ◽  
Face Task

Faces are considered a special class of holistically-processed object. The composite face task is a widely-used tool to infer holistic processing. In this task, recognition of one half of a composite face is shown to be hampered by interference from the other half of the face. Although this effect has been documented numerous times, when used in different paradigms, composite faces do not always exhibit effects consistent with holistic processing. The present study explored the cause of these discrepant findings by combining a composite face task with a signal-to-respond paradigm. The amount of time to make a face recognition decision was manipulated by introducing a response signal, and the resulting changes in accuracy were mapped over the time course of processing, which was then used to fit a speed-accuracy trade-off model. We found that holistic processing emerges late in the time course (after approximately 600 ms processing time). Additionally, we found that only easy-to-detect changes elicited holistic processing.

scholarly journals Early Deafness Increases the Face Inversion Effect But Does Not Modulate the Composite Face Effect

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adélaïde de Heering ◽  
Abeer Aljuhanay ◽  
Bruno Rossion ◽  
Olivier Pascalis
Keyword(s):  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
The Face ◽  
Composite Face

scholarly journals Correlations between holistic processing, Autism quotient, extraversion, and experience and the own-gender bias in face recognition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mia Morgan ◽  
Peter James Hills
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Gender Bias ◽  
Holistic Processing ◽  
Personality Characteristics ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Autism Quotient ◽  
The Face ◽  
Processing Mechanisms ◽  
Composite Face ◽  
Opposite Gender

The variability in the own-gender bias (OGB) in face-recognition is thought to be based on experience (Herlitz & Lovén, 2013) and the engagement of expert face processing mechanisms for own-gender faces. Experience is also associated with personality characteristics such as extraversion and Autism, yet the effects of these variables on the own-gender bias has not been explored. We ran a face recognition study exploring the relationships between opposite-gender experience, holistic processing (measured using the face-inversion effect, composite face effect, and the parts-and-wholes test), personality characteristics (extraversion and Autism Quotient) and the OGB. Findings did not support a mediational account where experience increases holistic processing and this increases the OGB. Rather, there was a direct relationship between extraversion and Autism Quotient and the OGB. We interpret this as personality characteristics having an effect on the motivation to process own-gender faces more deeply than opposite-gender faces.

scholarly journals Developmental changes in the processing of faces as revealed by EEG decoding

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inês Mares ◽  
Louise Ewing ◽  
Emily K. Farran ◽  
Fraser W Smith ◽  
Marie L Smith
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Inversion Effect ◽  
Broad Face ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Face Inversion Effect ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
Face Categorization ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Face ◽  
Processing Mechanisms

AbstractRapidly and accurately processing information from faces is a critical human function that is known to improve with developmental age. Understanding the underlying drivers of this improvement remains a contentious question, with debate continuing as to the presence of early vs. late maturation of face-processing mechanisms. Recent behavioural evidence suggests an important ‘hallmark’ of expert face processing – the face inversion effect – is present in very young children, yet neural support for this remains unclear. To address this, we conducted a detailed investigation of the neural dynamics of face-selective processing in children spanning a range of ages (6 – 11 years) and adults. Uniquely, we applied multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA) to the electroencephalogram signal (EEG) to test for the presence of a distinct neural profile associated with canonical upright faces when compared both to other objects (houses) and to inverted faces. Results revealed robust discrimination profiles, at the individual level, of differentiated neural activity associated with broad face categorization and further with its expert processing, as indexed by the face inversion effect, from the youngest ages tested. This result is consistent with an early functional maturation of broad face processing mechanisms. Yet, clear quantitative differences between the response profile of children and adults is suggestive of age-related refinement of this system with developing face and general expertise. Standard ERP analysis also provides some support for qualitative differences in the neural response to inverted faces in children in contrast to adults. This neural profile is in line with recent behavioural studies that have reported impressively expert early face abilities during childhood, while also providing novel evidence of the ongoing neural specialisation between child and adulthood.

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