Average faces are average faces

Photographs of faces of young adult male and female Scots were measured on nineteen frontal dimensions. Measures in each dimension were converted to z-scores and summed for each face. For each sex, the ten faces closest to the average summed z-score and the ten most distant from it were rated for attractiveness by white male and female New Zealand undergraduates. Raters agreed significantly in ordering the faces in attractiveness, but did not rate faces close to the “population” average differently from those distant from it. Tested for the first time with actual rather than contrived faces, the commonly reported hypothesis that faces representing the average of a population are attractive is not supported.     

Average faces are average faces

Photographs of faces of young adult male and female Scots were measured on nineteen frontal dimensions. Measures in each dimension were converted to z-scores and summed for each face. For each sex, the ten faces closest to the average summed z-score and the ten most distant from it were rated for attractiveness by white male and female New Zealand undergraduates. Raters agreed significantly in ordering the faces in attractiveness, but did not rate faces close to the “population” average differently from those distant from it. Tested for the first time with actual rather than contrived faces, the commonly reported hypothesis that faces representing the average of a population are attractive is not supported.     

The contribution of symmetry and motion to the recognition of faces at novel orientations

In three experiments, we examined the recognition of faces at novel orientations. Although performance tended to decay as difference between the study and the test angles increased, an orientation that was symmetric with respect to the study orientation showed strong performance--in many cases, better than the frontal view. We investigated the properties of this particular facility in perception and memory tasks. Symmetrized faces showed surprisingly different patterns of behavior than did unsymmetrized faces, despite the fact that many faces were already fairly symmetric. In memory experiments, the subjects showed robust symmetric orientation effects and could differentiate between the original study views and the symmetric orientation. In a third experiment, we demonstrated that smooth motion improved performance at the symmetric orientation, whereas two control motions did not. Together, the three experiments support the view that multiple representations are at work during the recognition of faces at the symmetric orientation and that, during memory tasks, subjects tend to rely on representations that are more robust against texture asymmetries and that may include limited depth information.     

The role of surface attraction in perceiving volumetric shape

Rock [1973, Orientation and Form (New York: Academic Press)] showed that form perception generally depends more on the orientation of a stimulus in world coordinates than on its orientation in retinal coordinates. He suggested that the assignment of an object's 'environmental orientation' depends on gravity, visual frame of reference, and the observer's ability to impose orientation along one axis or another. This paper shows that the assignment of environmental orientation and perceived 3-D form also depends on the relationship between an object and retinally adjacent surfaces in the scene to which it might be attached. Whereas previous examples have demonstrated effects of orientation on 2-D form, we show that orientation can affect the perceived intrinsic 3-D shape of a volume.     

The role of motion in learning new faces

Four experiments are reported that investigate the usefulness of rigid (head nodding, shaking) and nonrigid (talking, expressions) motion for establishing new face representations of previously unfamiliar faces. Results show that viewing a face in motion leads to more accurate face learning, compared with viewing a single static image (Experiment 1). The advantage for viewing the face moving rigidly seems to be due to the different angles of view contained in these sequences (Experiment 2). However, the advantage for nonrigid motion is not simply due to multiple images (Experiment 3) and is not specifically linked to forwards motion but extends to reversed sequences (Experiment 4). Thus, although we have demonstrated beneficial effects of motion for face learning, they do not seem to be due to the specific dynamic properties of the sequences shown. Instead, the advantage for nonrigid motion may reflect increased attention to faces moving in a socially important manner.     

The role of perceptual load in processing distractor faces

It has been established that successful ignoring of irrelevant distractors depends on the extent to which the current task loads attention. However, the previous load studies have typically employed neutral distractor stimuli (e.g., letters). In the experiments reported here, we examined whether the perception of irrelevant distractor faces would show the same effects. We manipulated attentional load in a relevant task of name search by varying the search set size and found that whereas congruency effects from meaningful nonface distractors were eliminated by higher search load, interference from distractor faces was entirely unaffected by search load. These results support the idea that face processing may be mandatory and generalize the load theory to the processing of meaningful and more complex nonface distractors.     

The role of locus of control of reinforcement in interpersonal attraction

The purpose of the present study was to examine initial interpersonal attraction as a function of locus of control orientation. Subjects, previously tested for internality and externality, listened to a tape of an alleged stranger of the same age and sex as the subject. In reality the tapes were prepared to be either primarily internal or external in emphasis. Subjects were then asked to make some judgments about the supposed stranger. Among these judgments was the degree of attraction felt toward the individual on the tape. It was hypothesized that similarity of locus of control orientation between a subject and a stranger would lead to greater initial attraction than would a complementary locus of control orientation. Contrary to prediction, the results showed that both internal and external subjects were significantly more attracted to an internal stranger than to an external stranger. These results were discussed within an interpersonal attraction framework which suggested the need for a two-factor theory as the basis for interpersonal attraction.     

The role of movement in the recognition of famous faces

The effects of movement on the recognition of famous faces shown in difficult conditions were investigated. Images were presented as negatives, upside down (inverted), and thresholded. Results indicate that, under all these conditions, moving faces were recognized significantly better than static ones. One possible explanation of this effect could be that a moving sequence contains more static information about the different views and expressions of the face than does a single static image. However, even when the amount of static information was equated (Experiments 3 and 4), there was still an advantage for moving sequences that contained their original dynamic properties. The results suggest that the dynamics of the motion provide additional information, helping to access an established familiar face representation. Both the theoretical and the practical implications for these findings are discussed.     

The role of temporal context in norm-based encoding of faces

Research shows that the human brain encodes faces in terms of how they relate to a prototypical face, a phenomenon referred to as norm-based encoding. The goal of this study was to examine the effect of short-term exposure on the development of the norm, independently of global, long-term exposure. We achieved this by varying the sequence of presentation of the stimuli while keeping global exposure constant. We found that a systematic manipulation of the average face in a set of 10 preceding trials can shift this norm toward that average. However, there was no effect of order or recency among these trials; thus, there was no evidence that the last faces mattered more than the first. This suggests that the position of the face norm is modified by information that is integrated across multiple recent faces.     

Appearance of symmetry, beauty, and health in human faces

Symmetry is an important concept in biology, being related to mate selection strategies, health, and survival of species. In human faces, the relevance of left-right symmetry to attractiveness and health is not well understood. We compared the appearance of facial attractiveness, health, and symmetry in three separate experiments. Participants inspected front views of faces on the computer screen and judged them on a 5-point scale according to their attractiveness in Experiment 1, health in Experiment 2, and symmetry in Experiment 3. We found that symmetry and attractiveness were not strongly related in faces of women or men while health and symmetry were related. There was a significant difference between attractiveness and symmetry judgments but not between health and symmetry judgments. Moreover, there was a significant difference between attractiveness and health. Facial symmetry may be critical for the appearance of health but it does not seem to be critical for the appearance of attractiveness, not surprisingly perhaps because human faces together with the human brain have been shaped by adaptive evolution to be naturally asymmetrical.     

The role of dynamic information in the recognition of unfamiliar faces

The effects of movement on unfamiliar face recognition were investigated. In an incidental learning task, faces were studied either as computer-animated (moving) displays or as a series of static images, with identical numbers of frames shown for each. The movements were either nonrigid transformations (changes in expression) or rigid rotations in depth (nodding or shaking). At test, participants saw either single, static images or moving sequences. Only one experiment showed a significant effect of study type, in favor of static instances. There was no additional advantage from studying faces in motion in these experiments, in which both study types showed the same amounts of information. Recognition memory was relatively unaffected by changes in expression between study and test. Effects of viewpoint change were large when expressive transformations had been studied but much smaller when rigid rotations in depth had been studied. The series of experiments did reveal a slight advantage for testing memory with moving compared with static faces, consistent with recent findings using familiar faces. Future work will need to examine whether such effects may also be due to the additional information provided by an animated sequence.     

The role of symmetry in determining perceived centers within shapes

This study was designed to assess the effects of symmetry and plane of presentation on the determination of the perceptual center of flat figures. Experiment 1 demonstrates the existence of effects in improving center determination, both in the number of sides of the shape and in rotational and reflective symmetry (confounded in the experiment). Experiment 2 shows that the presentation plane has no effect on center determination. In Experiment 3, we divide the effects of the two symmetry types, showing that rotational symmetry alone is as effective as the presence of both symmetry types—that is, the presence of symmetry axes is not very useful in finding perceived centers.     

The components of love: Romantic attraction and sex role orientation

Hypotheses derived from both Erich Fromm and the feminist literature linking sex role orientation to type of love experienced were tested in a sample of 123 heterosexual dating couples Five components of love were identified through factor analysis romantic dependency, communicative intimacy, physical arousal, respect, and romantic compatibility Type of love was related to sex role orientation (p 01), with traditionals characterized by romantic dependency and romantic compatibility, while nontraditionals emphasized communicative intimacy Sex differences showed females being more emotionally expressive in then love than males and scoring higher on communicative intimacy (p's < 01)     

Dissociating averageness and attractiveness: attractive faces are not always average

Although the averageness hypothesis of facial attractiveness proposes that the attractiveness of faces is mostly a consequence of their averageness, 1 study has shown that caricaturing highly attractive faces makes them mathematically less average but more attractive. Here the authors systematically test the averageness hypothesis in 5 experiments using both rating and visual adaptation paradigms. Visual adaptation has previously been shown to increase both preferences for previously viewed face types (i.e., attractiveness) and their perceived normality (i.e., averageness). The authors used a visual adaptation procedure to test whether facial attractiveness is dependent upon faces' proximity to average (averageness hypothesis) or their location relative to average along an attractiveness dimension in face space (contrast hypothesis). While the typical pattern of change due to visual adaptation was found for judgments of normality, judgments of attractiveness resulted in a very different pattern. The results of these 5 experiments conclusively support the proposal that there are specific nonaverage characteristics that are particularly attractive. The authors discuss important implications for the interpretation of studies using a visual adaptation paradigm to investigate attractiveness.     

The role of symmetry in determining perceived centers within shapes.

This study was designed to assess the effects of symmetry and plane of presentation on the determination of the perceptual center of flat figures. Experiment 1 demonstrates the existence of effects in improving center determination, both in the number of sides of the shape and in rotational and reflective symmetry (confounded in the experiment). Experiment 2 shows that the presentation plane has no effect on center determination. In Experiment 3, we divide the effects of the two symmetry types, showing that rotational symmetry alone is as effective as the presence of both symmetry types--that is, the presence of symmetry axes is not very useful in finding perceived centers.     

The role of familiarity in a face classification task using thatcherized faces

Two experiments are reported to test the proposition that facial familiarity influences processing on a face classification task. Thatcherization was used to generate distorted versions of familiar and unfamiliar individuals. Using both a 2AFC (which is “odd”?) task to pairs of images (Experiment 1) and an “odd/normal” task to single images (Experiment 2), results were consistent and indicated that familiarity with the target face facilitated the face classification decision. These results accord with the proposal that familiarity influences the early visual processing of faces. Results are evaluated with respect to four theoretical developments of Valentine's (1991) face-space model, and can be accommodated with the two models that assume familiarity to be encoded within a region of face space.     

Sexual risk taking in adolescence: the role of self-regulation and attraction to risk

Precursors of adolescent sexual risk taking were examined in a multiethnic sample consisting of 443 children (51% girls) of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth participants. Respondents were 12-13 years old in 1994 and 16-17 in 1998. Controlling for demographic and contextual factors, self-regulation--but not risk proneness--was significantly (modestly) associated with overall sexual risk taking 4 years later. Analyses of individual sexual behaviors indicated that self-regulation may affect choices made after becoming sexually active (e.g., number of partners) rather than the initiation of sexual activity. Measures of parent and peer influence had independent effects on sexual risk taking but did not moderate the effects of self-regulation and risk proneness. Findings add to the growing literature on implications of self-regulation for individual development.