Stereotype priming in face recognition: interactions between semantic and visual information in face encoding

The accuracy with which previously unfamiliar faces are recognised is increased by the presentation of a stereotype-congruent occupation label [Klatzky, R. L., Martin, G. L., & Kane, R. A. (1982a). Semantic interpretation effects on memory for faces. Memory & Cognition, 10, 195-206; Klatzky, R. L., Martin, G. L., & Kane, R. A. (1982b). Influence of social-category activation on processing of visual information. Social Cognition, 1, 95-109]. For example, providing the label 'criminal' both during encoding and test improves recognition for previously unfamiliar faces that look like the stereotypical criminal. Experiments 1 and 2 both replicate this effect and show that the label exerts its influence during the encoding of stereotypical faces and has little influence at test. These findings indicate that semantic information that is congruent with novel stereotypical faces facilitates their encoding.     

The effects of precedence on Navon-induced processing bias in face recognition

Macrae and Lewis (2002) Macrae, C. N. and Lewis, H. L. 2002. Do I know you? Processing orientation and face recognition. Psychological Science, 13: 194–196. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] showed that repeated reporting of the global dimension of Navon stimuli improved performance in a subsequent face identification task, whilst reporting the features of the Navon stimuli impaired performance. Using a face composite task, which is assumed to require featural processing, Weston and Perfect (2005) Weston, N. J. and Perfect, T. J. 2005. The effects of processing bias on the composite effect. /precode>. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 12: 1038–1042. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] showed the complementary pattern: Featural responding to Navon letters speeded performance. However, both studies used Navon stimuli with global precedence, in which the overall configuration is easier to report than the features. Here we replicate the two studies above, whilst manipulating the precedence (global or featural) of the letter stimuli in the orientation task. Both studies replicated the previously reported findings with global precedence stimuli, but showed the reverse pattern with local precedence stimuli. These data raise important questions as to what is transferred between the Navon orientation task and the face-processing tasks that follow.     

熟悉面孔与陌生面孔识别的差异

摘 要：面孔识别包括熟悉面孔识别和陌生面孔识别,两者之间的差异已经得到了多方面的证明。神经生理学的研究发现,识别陌生面孔和熟悉面孔所激活的脑区存在差异,与识别陌生面孔相比,识别熟悉面孔的脑区活动范围更大,包括双侧前额叶、单侧颞叶、海马回、杏仁核、后扣带回和右下额叶。并且也存在脑电的差异,比如 N400和P600的差异。对陌生面孔和熟悉面孔识别具有相同影响的因素有：遮挡、倒置等;具有不同影响的因素有：视角、表情、内外部特征等。文章也探讨了陌生面孔变成熟悉面孔的过程,以及在这一过程中起主要作用的编码形式等。     

An own-race advantage for components as well as configurations in face recognition

The own-race advantage in face recognition has been hypothesized as being due to a superiority in the processing of configural information for own-race faces. Here we examined the contributions of both configural and component processing to the own-race advantage. We recruited 48 Caucasian participants in Australia and 48 Chinese participants in Hong Kong, and had them study Caucasian and Chinese faces. After study, they were shown old faces (along with distractors) that were either blurred (isolating configural processing), in which high spatial frequencies were removed from the intact faces, or scrambled (isolating component processing), in which the locations of all face components were rearranged. Participants performed better on the memory test for own-race faces in both the blurred (configural) and scrambled (component) conditions, showing an own-race advantage for both configural and component processing. These results suggest that the own-race advantage in face recognition is due to a general facilitation in different forms of face processing.     

Identity-specific face adaptation effects: evidence for abstractive face representations

The effects of selective adaptation on familiar face perception were examined. After prolonged exposure to photographs of a celebrity, participants saw a series of ambiguous morphs that were varying mixtures between the face of that person and a different celebrity. Participants judged fewer of the morphs to resemble the celebrity to which they had been adapted, implying that they were now less sensitive to that particular face. Similar results were obtained when the adapting faces were highly dissimilar in viewpoint to the test morphs; when they were presented upside-down; or when they were vertically stretched to three times their normal height. These effects rule out explanations of adaptation effects solely in terms of low-level image-based adaptation. Instead they are consistent with the idea that relatively viewpoint-independent, person-specific adaptation occurred, at the level of either the “Face Recognition Units” or “Person Identity Nodes” in Burton, Bruce and Johnston’s (1990) model of face recognition.     

Newborns' face recognition over changes in viewpoint

The study investigated the origins of the ability to recognize faces despite rotations in depth. Four experiments are reported that tested, using the habituation technique, whether 1-to-3-day-old infants are able to recognize the invariant aspects of a face over changes in viewpoint. Newborns failed to recognize facial perceptual invariances between profile and full-face poses (Experiment 1), and profile and 3/4 poses (Experiment 3). Conversely, newborns recognized the identity of a face through full-face and 3/4 poses (Experiment 2). This result cannot be explained as a consequence of newborns' inability to discriminate between the full-face and 3/4 points of view (Experiment 4). Overall, evidence was provided that newborns are able to derive a representation of an unfamiliar face that is resilient to a certain degree of rotation in depth, from full-face to 3/4 and vice versa.     

Multiple perceptual strategies used by macaque monkeys for face recognition

Successful integration of individuals in macaque societies suggests that monkeys use fast and efficient perceptual mechanisms to discriminate between conspecifics. Humans and great apes use primarily holistic and configural, but also feature-based, processing for face recognition. The relative contribution of these processes to face recognition in monkeys is not known. We measured face recognition in three monkeys performing a visual paired comparison task. Monkey and humans faces were (1) axially rotated, (2) inverted, (3) high-pass filtered, and (4) low-pass filtered to isolate different face processing strategies. The amount of time spent looking at the eyes, mouth, and other facial features was compared across monkey and human faces for each type of stimulus manipulation. For all monkeys, face recognition, expressed as novelty preference, was intact for monkey faces that were axially rotated or spatially filtered and was supported in general by preferential looking at the eyes, but was impaired for inverted faces in two of the three monkeys. Axially rotated, upright human faces with a full range of spatial frequencies were also recognized, however, the distribution of time spent exploring each facial feature was significantly different compared to monkey faces. No novelty preference, and hence no inferred recognition, was observed for inverted or low-pass filtered human faces. High-pass filtered human faces were recognized, however, the looking pattern on facial features deviated from the pattern observed for monkey faces. Taken together these results indicate large differences in recognition success and in perceptual strategies used by monkeys to recognize humans versus conspecifics. Monkeys use both second-order configural and feature-based processing to recognize the faces of conspecifics, but they use primarily feature-based strategies to recognize human faces.     

Hemispheric asymmetry in cross-race face recognition

This study examines two phenomena related to face perception, both of which depend on experience and holistic processing: perceivers process faces more efficiently in the right hemisphere of the brain (a hemispheric asymmetry), and they typically show greater recognition accuracy for members of their racial ingroup (a cross-race recognition deficit). The current study tests the possibility that these two effects are related. If asymmetry depends on experience, it should be particularly evident with (more familiar) ingroup faces; if cross-race recognition relies on holistic processing, it should be particularly evident for faces presented to the right hemisphere. Black and White participants viewed Black and White faces presented to either the left or right visual field. As predicted, participants showed a more pronounced asymmetry for ingroup (rather than outgroup) faces, and cross-race recognition deficits were more pronounced for stimuli presented to the left (rather than the right) visual field.     

Influence of emotional facial expressions on 3-5-year-olds’ face recognition

Three experiments examined 3- and 5-year-olds’ recognition of faces in constant and varied emotional expressions. Children were asked to identify repeatedly presented target faces, distinguishing them from distractor faces, during an immediate recognition test and during delayed assessments after 10 min and one week. Emotional facial expression remained neutral (Experiment 1) or varied between immediate and delayed tests: from neutral to smile and anger (Experiment 2), from smile to neutral and anger (Experiment 3, condition 1), or from anger to neutral and smile (Experiment 3, condition 2). In all experiments, immediate face recognition was not influenced by emotional expression for either age group. Delayed face recognition was most accurate for faces in identical emotional expression. For 5-year-olds, delayed face recognition (with varied emotional expression) was not influenced by which emotional expression had been displayed during the immediate recognition test. Among 3-year-olds, accuracy decreased when facial expressions varied from neutral to smile and anger but was constant when facial expressions varied from anger or smile to neutral, smile or anger. Three-year-olds’ recognition was facilitated when faces initially displayed smile or anger expressions, but this was not the case for 5-year-olds. Results thus indicate a developmental progression in face identity recognition with varied emotional expressions between ages 3 and 5.     

Tolerance for distorted faces: Challenges to a configural processing account of familiar face recognition

Face recognition is widely held to rely on ‘configural processing’, an analysis of spatial relations between facial features. We present three experiments in which viewers were shown distorted faces, and asked to resize these to their correct shape. Based on configural theories appealing to metric distances between features, we reason that this should be an easier task for familiar than unfamiliar faces (whose subtle arrangements of features are unknown). In fact, participants were inaccurate at this task, making between 8% and 13% errors across experiments. Importantly, we observed no advantage for familiar faces: in one experiment participants were more accurate with unfamiliars, and in two experiments there was no difference. These findings were not due to general task difficulty – participants were able to resize blocks of colour to target shapes (squares) more accurately. We also found an advantage of familiarity for resizing other stimuli (brand logos). If configural processing does underlie face recognition, these results place constraints on the definition of ‘configural’. Alternatively, familiar face recognition might rely on more complex criteria – based on tolerance to within-person variation rather than highly specific measurement.     

Tolerance of geometric distortions in infant's face recognition

The aim of the current study is to reveal the effect of global linear transformations (shearing, horizontal stretching, and vertical stretching) on the recognition of familiar faces (e.g., a mother's face) in 6- to 7-month-old infants. In this experiment, we applied the global linear transformations to both the infants’ own mother's face and to a stranger's face, and we tested infants’ preference between these faces. We found that only 7-month-old infants maintained preference for their own mother's face during the presentation of vertical stretching, while the preference for the mother's face disappeared during the presentation of shearing or horizontal stretching. These findings suggest that 7-month-old infants might not recognize faces based on calculating the absolute distance between facial features, and that the vertical dimension of facial features might be more related to infants’ face recognition rather than the horizontal dimension.     

Famous face recognition,face matching,and extraversion

It has been previously established that extraverts who are skilled at interpersonal interaction perform significantly better than introverts on a face-specific recognition memory task. In our experiment we further investigate the relationship between extraversion and face recognition, focusing on famous face recognition and face matching. Results indicate that more extraverted individuals perform significantly better on an upright famous face recognition task and show significantly larger face inversion effects. However, our results did not find an effect of extraversion on face matching or inverted famous face recognition.     

Effects of divided attention and social categorization on the own-race bias in face recognition

Perceivers remember own-race faces more accurately than other-race faces (i.e., Own-Race Bias). In the current experiments, we manipulated participants' attentional resources and social group membership to explore their influence on own and other-race face recognition memory. In Experiment 1, Chinese participants viewed own-race and Caucasian faces, and between-subjects we manipulated whether participants attention was divided during face encoding. We found that divided attention eliminated the Own-Race Bias in memory due to a reduction of memory accuracy for own-race faces, implicating that attention allocation plays a role in creating the bias. In Experiment 2, Chinese participants completed an ostensible personality test. Some participants were informed that their personality traits were most commonly found in Caucasian (i.e., other-race) individuals, resulting in these participants sharing a group membership with other-race targets. In contrast, other participants were not told anything about the personality test, resulting in the default own-race group membership. The participants encoded the faces for a subsequent recognition memory test either with or without performing a concurrent arithmetic distracting task. Results showed that other-race group membership and reducing attention during encoding independently eliminated the typical Own-Race Bias in face memory. The implications of these findings on perceptual-expertise and social-categorization models are discussed.     

Aberrant pattern of scanning in prosopagnosia reflects impaired face processing

Visual scanpath recording was used to investigate the information processing strategies used by a prosopagnosic patient, SC, when viewing faces. Compared to controls, SC showed an aberrant pattern of scanning, directing attention away from the internal configuration of facial features (eyes, nose) towards peripheral regions (hair, forehead) of the face. The results suggest that SC's face recognition deficit can be linked to an inability to assemble an accurate and unified face percept due to an abnormal allocation of attention away from the internal face region. Extraction of stimulus attributes necessary for face identity recognition is compromised by an aberrant face scanning pattern.     

Retrieval independence between parts and wholes in successive recognition tasks

Participants studied AB word pairs and completed three recognition tests. In one recognition test each A word was presented with two distractors that did not appear on the study list. In another recognition test each B word was presented with two distractors that did not appear on the study list. In a third recognition test an AB target was presented with two distractors composed of words not on the study list. Six different groups of participants each performed the recognition tests in a different order, so that all possible orders were tested. Recognition of the A, B, and AB targets for a given study pair were independent of each other when single-word recognition preceded double-word recognition. There was almost complete independence in the reverse order. Even when recognition judgements were restricted to those for which the participants were most confident, there was independence of recognition among the three tests. A pair recognition test served as an additional study trial for the individual words; however, the reverse was not the case. All of these results were predicted by a single three-parameter mathematical model derived from the hypothesis that single-word and double-word targets had independent representations in memory.     

Word recognition and face recognition following posterior cerebral artery stroke: Overlapping networks and selective contributions

It has been suggested that word- and face recognition rely on a common cerebral network for perceptual processing. To further explore this hypothesis, face- and word recognition were assessed in seven patients with focal lesions after stroke of the posterior cerebral artery in either hemisphere. The aim was to investigate if problems in face- and word recognition would co-occur, if testing was sensitive and patients were not pre-selected based on behavioural symptoms. Patients and matched controls were given a reading test and a delayed matching paradigm with faces, objects, and words. Interestingly, all patients with word recognition difficulties had problems in face recognition, independently of the affected hemisphere, supporting the existence of a bilateral perceptual network for faces and words. However, two patients showed selective face recognition problems after unilateral damage to either hemisphere, suggesting that parts of this network may be more critical for face than for word recognition.     

Visual working memory capacity for objects from different categories: a face-specific maintenance effect

The capacity of visual working memory was examined when complex objects from different categories were remembered. Previous studies have not examined how visual similarity affects object memory, though it has long been known that similar-sounding phonological information interferes with rehearsal in auditory working memory. Here, experiments required memory for two or four objects. Memory capacity was compared between remembering four objects from a single object category to remembering four objects from two different categories. Two-category sets led to increased memory capacity only when upright faces were included. Capacity for face-only sets never exceeded their nonface counterparts, and the advantage for two-category sets when faces were one of the categories disappeared when inverted faces were used. These results suggest that two-category sets which include faces are advantaged in working memory but that faces alone do not lead to a memory capacity advantage.     

The role of priming in conjunctive visual search

To assess the role of priming in conjunctive visual search tasks, we systematically varied the consistency of the target and distractor identity between different conditions. Search was fastest in the standard conjunctive search paradigm where identities remained constant. Search was slowest when potential target identity varied predictably for each successive trial (the 'switch' condition). The role of priming was also demonstrated on a trial-by-trial basis in a 'streak' condition where target and distractor identity was unpredictable yet was consistent within streaks. When the target to be found was the same for a few trials in a row, search performance became similar to that when the potential target was the same on all trials. A similar pattern was found for the target absent trials, suggesting that priming is based on the whole search array rather than just the target in each case. Further analysis indicated that the effects of priming are sufficiently strong to account for the advantage seen for the conjunctive search task. We conclude that the role of priming in visual search is underestimated in current theories of visual search and that differences in search times often attributed to top-down guidance may instead reflect the benefits of priming.