Orientation-invariance of individual differences in three face processing tasks

Numerous studies have reported impairments in perception and recognition, and, particularly, in part-integration of faces following picture-plane inversion. Whether these findings support the notion that inversion changes face processing qualitatively remains a topic of debate. To examine whether associations and dissociations of the human face processing ability depend on stimulus orientation, we measured face recognition with the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT), along with experimental tests of face perception and selective attention to faces and non-face objects in a sample of 314 participants. Results showed strong inversion effects for all face-related tasks, and modest ones for non-face objects. Individual differences analysis revealed that the CFMT shared common variance with face perception and face-selective attention, however, independent of orientation. Regardless of whether predictor and criterion had same or different orientation, face recognition was best predicted by the same test battery. Principal component decomposition revealed a common factor for face recognition and face perception, a second common factor for face recognition and face-selective attention, and two unique factors. The patterns of factor loadings were nearly identical for upright and inverted presentation. These results indicate orientation-invariance of common variance in three domains of face processing. Since inversion impaired performance, but did not affect domain-related associations and dissociations, the findings suggest process-specific but orientation-general mechanisms. Specific limitations by constraints of individual differences analysis and test selection are discussed.

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Priming Visual Face-Processing Mechanisms: Electrophysiological Evidence

Psychological Science ◽

10.1111/1467-9280.00435 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 190-193 ◽

Cited By ~ 84

Author(s):

Shlomo Bentin ◽

Noam Sagiv ◽

Axel Mecklinger ◽

Angela Friederici ◽

Yves D. von Cramon

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Face Perception ◽

Face Processing ◽

Specific Activity ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Perceptual Representation ◽

Contextual Influences ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Processing Mechanisms ◽

Perceptual Mechanism

Accumulated evidence from electrophysiology and neuroimaging suggests that face perception involves extrastriate visual mechanisms specialized in processing physiognomic features and building a perceptual representation that is categorically distinct and can be identified by face-recognition units. In the present experiment, we recorded event-related brain potentials in order to explore possible contextual influences on the activity of this perceptual mechanism. Subjects were first exposed to pairs of small shapes, which did not elicit any face-specific brain activity. The same stimuli, however, elicited face-specific brain activity after subjects saw them embedded in schematic faces, which probably primed the subjects to interpret the shapes as schematic eyes. No face-specific activity was observed when objects rather than faces were used to form the context. We conclude that the activity of face-specific extrastriate perceptual mechanisms can be modulated by contextual constraints that determine the significance of the visual input.

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Adults’ Markers of Face Processing Are Present at Age 6 and Are Interconnected Along Development

Perception ◽

10.1177/0301006618794943 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 47 (10-11) ◽

pp. 1002-1028 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elite Mardo ◽

Galia Avidan ◽

Bat-Sheva Hadad

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Face Perception ◽

Face Processing ◽

General Factor ◽

Specific Marker ◽

Term Memory ◽

Face Memory ◽

Perceptual Skills ◽

Domain Specific

Recent studies on the development of face processing argue for a late, quantitative, domain-specific development of face processing, and face memory in particular. Most previous findings were based on separately tracking the developmental course of face perception skills, comparing performance across different age groups. Here, we adopted a different approach studying the mechanisms underlying the development of face processing by focusing on how different face skills are interrelated over the years (age 6 to adulthood). Specifically, we examined correlations within and between different categories of tasks: face domain-specific skills involving face recognition based on long-term representations (famous face), and short-term memory retention (Cambridge Face Memory Test), perceptual face-specific marker (inversion effect), global effects in scene perception (global–local task), and the perception of facial expressions. Factor analysis revealed that face identity skills have a similar pattern of interrelations throughout development, identifying two factors: a face domain-specific factor comprising adultlike markers of face processing and a general factor incorporating related, but nonspecific perceptual skills. Domain-specific age-related changes in face recognition entailing short- and long-term retention of face representations were observed, along with mature perceptual face-specific markers and more general perceptual effects predicting face perception skills already at age 6. The results suggest that the domain-specific changes in face processing are unlikely to result from developmental changes in perceptual skills driving face recognition. Instead, development may either involve improvement in the ability to retain face representations in memory or changes in the interactions between the perceptual representations of faces and their representations in long-term memory.

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Boundary Extension in Face Processing

i-Perception ◽

10.1177/2041669517724808 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (5) ◽

pp. 204166951772480 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Olesya Blazhenkova

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Face Processing ◽

Boundary Extension ◽

Short Term ◽

Term Condition ◽

Face Images ◽

Emotional Ability ◽

And Performance

Boundary extension is a common false memory error, in which people confidently remember seeing a wider angle view of the scene than was viewed. Previous research found that boundary extension is scene-specific and did not examine this phenomenon in nonscenes. The present research explored boundary extension in cropped face images. Participants completed either a short-term or a long-term condition of the task. During the encoding, they observed photographs of faces, cropped either in a forehead or in a chin area, and subsequently performed face recognition through a forced-choice selection. The recognition options represented different degrees of boundary extension and boundary restriction errors. Eye-tracking and performance data were collected. The results demonstrated boundary extension in both memory conditions. Furthermore, previous literature reported the asymmetry in amounts of expansion at different sides of an image. The present work provides the evidence of asymmetry in boundary extension. In the short-term condition, boundary extension errors were more pronounced for forehead, than for chin face areas. Finally, this research examined the relationships between the measures of boundary extension, imagery, and emotion. The results suggest that individual differences in emotional ability and object, but not spatial, imagery could be associated with boundary extension in face processing.

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The Oxford Face Matching Test: A Non-Biased Test of The Full Range of Individual Differences in Face Perception

10.31234/osf.io/afsr6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mirta Stantic ◽

Rebecca Brewer ◽

Brad Duchaine ◽

Michael J. Banissy ◽

Sarah Bate ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Face Perception ◽

Face Processing ◽

Item Difficulty ◽

Full Range ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Face Memory ◽

Face Matching ◽

Matching Test ◽

Processing Abilities

Tests of face processing are typically designed to identify individuals performing outside of the typical range; either prosopagnosic individuals who exhibit poor face processing ability, or super recognisers, who have superior face processing abilities. Here we describe the development of the Oxford Face Matching Test (OFMT), designed to identify individual differences in face processing across the full range of performance, from prosopagnosia, through the range of typical performance, to super recognisers. Such a test requires items of varying difficulty, but establishing difficulty is problematic when particular populations (e.g. prosopagnosics, individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder) may use atypical strategies to process faces. If item difficulty is calibrated on neurotypical individuals, then the test may be poorly calibrated for atypical groups, and vice versa. To obtain items of varying difficulty we used facial recognition algorithms to obtain face pair similarity ratings that are not biased towards specific populations. These face pairs were used as stimuli in the OFMT, and participants required to judge if the face images depicted the same individual or different individuals. Across five studies the OFMT was shown to be sensitive to individual differences in the typical population, and in groups of both prosopagnosic individuals and super recognisers. The test-retest reliability of the task was at least equivalent to the Cambridge Face Memory Test and the Glasgow Face Matching Test. Furthermore, results reveal, at least at the group level, that both face perception and face memory are poor in those with prosopagnosia, and good in super recognisers.

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Differences between and within individuals, and subprocesses of face cognition: implications for theory, research and personnel selection

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.200233 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (9) ◽

pp. 200233

Author(s):

Matthew C. Fysh ◽

Lisa Stacchi ◽

Meike Ramon

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Face Perception ◽

Real World ◽

Personnel Selection ◽

Individual Performance ◽

Screening Tests ◽

Individual Level ◽

Performance Profiles ◽

The Individual

Recent investigations of individual differences have demonstrated striking variability in performance both within the same subprocess in face cognition (e.g. face perception), but also between two different subprocesses (i.e. face perception versus face recognition ) that are assessed using different tasks (face matching versus face memory ). Such differences between and within individuals between and within laboratory tests raise practical challenges. This applies in particular to the development of screening tests for the selection of personnel in real-world settings where faces are routinely processed, such as at passport control. The aim of this study, therefore, was to examine the performance profiles of individuals within and across two different subprocesses of face cognition: face perception and face recognition. To this end, 146 individuals completed four different tests of face matching—one novel tool for assessing proficiency in face perception, as well as three established measures—and two benchmark tests of face memory probing face recognition. In addition to correlational analyses, we further scrutinized individual performance profiles of the highest and lowest performing observers identified per test , as well as across all tests . Overall, a number of correlations emerged between tests. However, there was limited evidence at the individual level to suggest that high proficiency in one test generalized to other tests measuring the same subprocess, as well as those that measured a different subprocess. Beyond emphasizing the need to honour inter-individual differences through careful multivariate assessment in the laboratory, our findings have real-world implications: combinations of tests that most accurately map the task(s) and processes of interest are required for personnel selection.

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Specialized Face Perception Mechanisms Extract Both Part and Spacing Information: Evidence from Developmental Prosopagnosia

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2006.18.4.580 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 580-593 ◽

Cited By ~ 95

Author(s):

Galit Yovel ◽

Brad Duchaine

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Face Perception ◽

Face Processing ◽

Discrimination Task ◽

General Purpose ◽

Face Representation ◽

Lower Performance ◽

Processing Mechanisms ◽

Normal Performance ◽

Extract Information

It is well established that faces are processed by mechanisms that are not used with other objects. Two prominent hypotheses have been proposed to characterize how information is represented by these special mechanisms. The spacing hypothesis suggests that face-specific mechanisms primarily extract information about spacing among parts rather than information about the shape of the parts. In contrast, the holistic hypothesis suggests that faces are processed as nondecomposable wholes and, therefore, claims that both parts and spacing among them are integral aspects of face representation. Here we examined these hypotheses by testing a group of developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) who suffer from deficits in face recognition. Subjects performed a face discrimination task with faces that differed either in the spacing of the parts but not the parts (spacing task), or in the parts but not the spacing of the parts (part task). Consistent with the holistic hypothesis, DPs showed lower performance than controls on both the spacing and the part tasks, as long as salient contrast differences between the parts were minimized. Furthermore, by presenting similar spacing and part tasks with houses, we tested whether face-processing mechanisms are specific to faces, or whether they are used to process spacing information from any stimulus. DPs' normal performance on the tasks of two houses indicates that their deficit does not result from impairment in a general-purpose spacing mechanism. In summary, our data clearly support face-specific holistic hypothesis by showing that face perception mechanisms extract both part and spacing information.

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The Oxford Face Matching Test: A non-biased test of the full range of individual differences in face perception

Behavior Research Methods ◽

10.3758/s13428-021-01609-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mirta Stantic ◽

Rebecca Brewer ◽

Bradley Duchaine ◽

Michael J. Banissy ◽

Sarah Bate ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Face Perception ◽

Face Processing ◽

Item Difficulty ◽

Full Range ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Face Memory ◽

Face Matching ◽

Matching Test ◽

Processing Abilities

AbstractTests of face processing are typically designed to identify individuals performing outside of the typical range; either prosopagnosic individuals who exhibit poor face processing ability, or super recognisers, who have superior face processing abilities. Here we describe the development of the Oxford Face Matching Test (OFMT), designed to identify individual differences in face processing across the full range of performance, from prosopagnosia, through the range of typical performance, to super recognisers. Such a test requires items of varying difficulty, but establishing difficulty is problematic when particular populations (e.g., prosopagnosics, individuals with autism spectrum disorder) may use atypical strategies to process faces. If item difficulty is calibrated on neurotypical individuals, then the test may be poorly calibrated for atypical groups, and vice versa. To obtain items of varying difficulty, we used facial recognition algorithms to obtain face pair similarity ratings that are not biased towards specific populations. These face pairs were used as stimuli in the OFMT, and participants were required to judge whether the face images depicted the same individual or different individuals. Across five studies the OFMT was shown to be sensitive to individual differences in the typical population, and in groups of both prosopagnosic individuals and super recognisers. The test-retest reliability of the task was at least equivalent to the Cambridge Face Memory Test and the Glasgow Face Matching Test. Furthermore, results reveal, at least at the group level, that both face perception and face memory are poor in those with prosopagnosia, and are good in super recognisers.

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FACE RECOGNITION IN NEUROSCIENCE: A REMEDY FOR PROSOPAGNOSIA AFFECTED PEOPLE

International Journal of Electronics Signals and Systems ◽

10.47893/ijess.2013.1109 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 216-219

Author(s):

N. ASHITHA ◽

ADITI. A ◽

K. RAMESH KAMATH

Keyword(s):

Principal Component Analysis ◽

Image Analysis ◽

Face Recognition ◽

Face Perception ◽

Principal Component ◽

Component Analysis ◽

Automated System ◽

Human Ability ◽

Successful Approach

Face recognition is one of the most relevant applications of image analysis. It’s a true challenge to build an automated system which equals human ability to recognize faces. In the topic presented below the focus is on application of face recognition in Neuroscience, to help people affected with Prosopagnosia. Prosopagnosia is a disorder of face perception where the ability of a patient to recognize faces is impaired, while the ability to recognize other objects may be relatively intact.There are many algorithms proposed for face recognition. The most successful approach of those are the extensions of the principal component analysis.

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Face processing skills predict faithfulness of portraits drawn by novices

10.31219/osf.io/8t7k4 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Christel Devue ◽

Gina M. Grimshaw

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Face Processing ◽

Short Term Memory ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Term Memory ◽

Visual Short Term Memory ◽

Special Expertise ◽

Perceptual Abilities

Individuals show astonishing variability in their face recognition abilities, and the causes and consequences of this heterogeneity are unclear. Special expertise with faces, for example in portraitists, is associated with advantages on face processing tasks, especially those involving perceptual abilities. Do face processing skills improve through practice, or does drawing skill reflect pre-existing individual differences? If the latter, then the association between face processing skills and production of faithful portraits should also exist in people without practice in drawing. Two exploratory studies and one follow-up confirmatory study provide support for this hypothesis. Drawing ability of novices was predicted by their performance on face recognition tasks involving perceptual discrimination and visual short term memory, but not by those that rely more heavily on long term memory or memory for non-face objects. By examining non-experts, we show that expertise with faces might build upon pre-existing individual differences in face processing skills.

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Face Inversion Effect Emerges Under Critical Configural Discrepancy

Swiss Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1024/1421-0185/a000018 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 69 (3) ◽

pp. 161-167 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

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.

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