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.     

Impaired holistic and analytic face processing in congenital prosopagnosia: Evidence from the eye-contingent mask/window paradigm

There is abundant evidence that face recognition, in comparison to the recognition of other objects, is based on holistic processing rather than analytic processing. One line of research that provides evidence for this hypothesis is based on the study of people who experience pronounced difficulties in visually identifying conspecifics on the basis of their face. Earlier, we developed a behavioural paradigm to directly test analytic vs. holistic face processing. In comparison to a to be remembered reference face stimulus, one of two test stimuli was either presented in full view, with an eye-contingently moving window (only showing the fixated face feature, and therefore only affording analytic processing), or with an eye-contingently moving mask or scotoma (masking the fixated face feature, but still allowing holistic processing). In the present study we use this paradigm (that we used earlier in acquired prosopagnosia) to study face perception in congenital prosopagnosia (people having difficulties recognizing faces from birth on, without demonstrable brain damage). We observe both holistic and analytic face processing deficits in people with congenital prosopagnosia. Implications for a better understanding, both of congenital prosopagnosia and of normal face perception, are discussed.     

The association of physical activity to occipito-temporal processing during face recognition

ObjectivesThis study examined the association between physical activity level and primitive cognitive processing during a face recognition task in young adults, a topic that has received little attention.DesignCross-sectional.MethodsThe face recognition task required participants to respond to famous faces but not respond to unfamiliar faces. Task performance and several occipito-temporal event-related brain potentials reflecting the various stages of face processing, from perceptual encoding (N170) to recognition (N250 and face-N400), were assessed during the face recognition task.ResultsAlthough analyses revealed no significant group differences in behavioral performance measures, neuroelectric data showed different time courses of face recognition processes between groups. Active individuals exhibited larger N250 amplitude, reflecting an early stage of facial recognition, for famous relative to unfamiliar faces, whereas inactive individuals did not exhibit such a difference.ConclusionsThese findings are suggestive of a possible association between physical activity and relatively early, primitive cognitive processes.     

Investigating Maternal Touch and Infants' Self‐Regulatory Behaviours during a Modified Face‐to‐Face Still‐Face with Touch Procedure

Maternal touch and infants' self‐regulatory behaviours were examined during a modified Still‐Face with Touch (SF + T) procedure. Mothers and their 5½‐month‐old infants participated in one period of Normal interaction followed by three SF + T periods. Maternal functions of touch, and infants' self‐regulatory behaviour, affect, and attention were evaluated. Contrary to a typical SF procedure, the amount of smiling remained high while fretting remained low. High levels of maternal touching and variations in the functions of maternal touch were observed across periods. Playful touch remained high while there was an increase in nurturing touch and a decrease in attention‐getting touch from the Normal to all SF + T periods. Similar amounts of self‐regulatory behaviours were observed across periods with the exception of a decrease in bidirectional exchanges during the SF + T periods. Finally, across periods, maternal touch and infants' self‐regulatory behaviours were found to be temporally organized with infants' affect and attention. Examining how mothers use touch when other forms of communication are absent increased our understanding of the role of touch in infants' emotion regulation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

视觉表象扫描加工可塑性水平的研究

本研究通过两个实验分别检测20名飞行员和10名老年被试及其相应控制组的表象扫描加工水平,旨在探讨表象扫描这一典型视觉空间认知加工所表现出的可塑性水平。研究结果表明,表象扫描加工水平既没有因外界系统的训练而发生功能增强的练习效应,也未出现随年老化过程所表现出的功能显著下降的年龄效应。研究提示,由于受大脑神经细胞活动特性改变的影响,表象扫描加工能力更多地表现出了其认知加工的相对稳定性或可塑性较低的认知特性。     

Using automatic face analysis to score infant behaviour from video collected online

Online testing of infants by recording video with a webcam has the potential to improve the replicability of developmental studies by facilitating larger sample sizes and by allowing methods (including recruitment) to be specified in code. However, the recorded video still needs to be manually scored. This labour-intensive process puts downward pressure on sample sizes and requires subjective judgements that may not be reproducible in a different laboratory. Here we present the first fully automatic pipeline, using a face analysis software-as-a-service and a discriminant-analysis classifier to score infant videos acquired online. We compare human and machine performance for looking time and preferential looking paradigms; machine performance demonstrates a promising proof of principle for looking time and is above chance in classifying preferential looking. Additionally, we studied the characteristics of the video and the child that influenced automated scoring, so that future studies can acquire data that maximises the performance of automatic gaze coding and/or focus on improving automatic coding for particularly challenging data. We believe this technology has great promise for developmental science.     

Getting to the heart of it: Multi-method exploration of nonconscious prioritization processes

Understanding the determinants of consciousness is crucial for theories that see it as functionally adaptive, and for explaining how consciousness affects higher-level cognition. The invention of continuous flash suppression (CFS), a long-duration suppression technique, resulted in a proliferation of research into the process of prioritization for consciousness. We developed a new technique, repeated masked suppression (RMS), that facilitates the measurement of long suppression times, but relies on different visual principles. RMS enables a theoretical leap: It allows scientists to examine the central process of prioritization across different suppression methods. In five experiments (n = 282) we collected chronometric RMS and CFS data, finding that the previously reported face inversion effect and the face priority-dimension generalize beyond CFS. Our results validate the use of multi-method designs in the study of prioritization for consciousness. Furthermore, we show how RMS could be used online to reach diverse samples, previously beyond the reach of consciousness science.     

Identity From Variation: Representations of Faces Derived From Multiple Instances

Research in face recognition has tended to focus on discriminating between individuals, or “telling people apart.” It has recently become clear that it is also necessary to understand how images of the same person can vary, or “telling people together.” Learning a new face, and tracking its representation as it changes from unfamiliar to familiar, involves an abstraction of the variability in different images of that person's face. Here, we present an application of principal components analysis computed across different photos of the same person. We demonstrate that people vary in systematic ways, and that this variability is idiosyncratic—the dimensions of variability in one face do not generalize well to another. Learning a new face therefore entails learning how that face varies. We present evidence for this proposal and suggest that it provides an explanation for various effects in face recognition. We conclude by making a number of testable predictions derived from this framework.     

Configural and component processing in simultaneous and sequential lineup procedures

Configural processing supports accurate face recognition, yet it has never been examined within the context of criminal identification lineups. We tested, using the inversion paradigm, the role of configural processing in lineups. Recent research has found that face discrimination accuracy in lineups is better in a simultaneous compared to a sequential lineup procedure. Therefore, we compared configural processing in simultaneous and sequential lineups to examine whether there are differences. We had participants view a crime video, and then they attempted to identify the perpetrator from a simultaneous or sequential lineup. The test faces were presented either upright or inverted, as previous research has shown that inverting test faces disrupts configural processing. The size of the inversion effect for faces was the same across lineup procedures, indicating that configural processing underlies face recognition in both procedures. Discrimination accuracy was comparable across lineup procedures in both the upright and inversion condition. Theoretical implications of the results are discussed.     

The impact of beliefs about face recognition ability on memory retrieval processes in young and older adults

This study examined whether beliefs about face recognition ability differentially influence memory retrieval in older compared to young adults. Participants evaluated their ability to recognise faces and were also given information about their ability to perceive and recognise faces. The information was ostensibly based on an objective measure of their ability, but in actuality, participants had been randomly assigned the information they received (high ability, low ability or no information control). Following this information, face recognition accuracy for a set of previously studied faces was measured using a remember–know memory paradigm. Older adults rated their ability to recognise faces as poorer compared to young adults. Additionally, negative information about face recognition ability improved only older adults' ability to recognise a previously seen face. Older adults were also found to engage in more familiarity than item-specific processing than young adults, but information about their face recognition ability did not affect face processing style. The role that older adults' memory beliefs have in the meta-cognitive strategies they employ is discussed.