Face recognition as a predictor of social cognitive ability: Effects of emotion and race on face processing

The human face conveys important social signals when people interact in social contexts. The current study investigated the relationship between face recognition and emotional intelligence, and how societal factors of emotion and race influence people's face recognition. Participants’ recognition accuracy, reaction time, sensitivity, and response bias were measured to examine their face‐processing ability. Fifty Caucasian undergraduates (38 females, 12 males; average age = 21.76 years) participated in a face recognition task in which they discriminated previously presented target faces from novel distractor faces. A positive correlation between participants’ emotional intelligence scores and their performance on the face recognition task was observed, suggesting that face recognition ability was associated with emotional or social intelligence. Additionally, Caucasian participants recognized happy faces better than angry or neutral faces. It was also observed that people recognized Asian faces better than Caucasian ones, which appears to be contradictory to the classic other‐race effect. The present study suggests that some societal factors could influence face processing, and face recognition ability could in turn predict social intelligence.     

Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Attractiveness

The human face communicates an impressive number of visual signals. Although adults' ratings of facial attractiveness are consistent across studies, even cross-culturally, there has been considerable controversy surrounding attempts to identify the facial features that cause faces to be judged attractive or unattractive. Studies of physical attractiveness have attempted to identify the features that contribute to attractiveness by studying the relationships between attractiveness and (a) symmetry, (b) averageness, and (c) nonaverage sexually dimorphic features (hormone markers). Evolutionary psychology proposes that these characteristics all pertain to health, suggesting that humans have evolved to view certain features as attractive because they were displayed by healthy individuals. However, the question remains how single features that are considered attractive relate to each other, and if they form a single ornament that signals mate quality. Moreover, some researchers have recently explained attractiveness preferences in terms of individual differences that are predictable. This article briefly describes what is currently known from attractiveness research, reviews some recent advances, and suggests areas for future researchers' attention.     

The flip side of the other‐race coin: They all look different to me

Poorer recognition of other‐race faces than own‐races faces has been attributed to a problem of discrimination (i.e., telling faces apart). The conclusion that ‘they all look the same to me' is based on studies measuring the perception/memory of highly controlled stimuli, typically involving only one or two images of each identity. We hypothesized that such studies underestimate the challenge involved in recognizing other‐race faces because in the real world, an individual's appearance varies in a number of ways (e.g., lighting, expression, hairstyle), reducing the utility of relying on pictorial cues to identity. In two experiments, Caucasian and East Asian participants completed a perceptual sorting task in which they were asked to sort 40 photographs of two unfamiliar identities into piles such that each pile contained all photographs of a single identity. Participants perceived more identities when sorting other‐race faces than own‐race faces, both when sorting celebrity (Experiment 1) and non‐celebrity (Experiment 2) faces, suggesting that in the real world, ‘they all look different to me'. We discuss these results in the light of models in which each identity is represented as a region in a multidimensional face space; we argue that this region is smaller for other‐race than own‐race faces.     

The Sanitary‐Mask Effect on Perceived Facial Attractiveness

Currently, some Japanese women use a sanitary mask to hide their faces when not wearing makeup, perhaps because they believe that they are more attractive (or less ugly) when wearing a sanitary mask than when not wearing makeup. The present study examined the effect of wearing a sanitary mask on the perception of facial attractiveness. We manipulated the presence or absence of a mask in the main experiments or an occluder (e.g., notebook) in control experiments and asked participants to rate facial images. The results revealed that attractive faces wearing a sanitary mask were perceived as less attractive than the same faces without the mask, contrary to Japanese women's belief. This is the first study to demonstrate a new phenomenon, the sanitary‐mask effect, in which observers underestimate the physical attractiveness of a mask‐wearing face. Importantly, the pattern of the results of perceived attractiveness was substantially altered when a control object occluded the faces. This suggests that facial occlusion by a sanitary mask has a unique effect, due to occlusion and unhealthiness priming.     

Investigating the face inversion effect in a deaf population using the Dimensions Tasks

Early experience can change the way people process faces. Early deafness provides deaf children with the opportunity to learn sign language, which is likely to alter their face processing strategy. The goal of the current study was to investigate whether early deafness, combined with the sign language experience, was able to change the face processing strategy using the Dimensions Task. In the Face Dimensions Task, configural and featural information were parametrically and independently manipulated in the eye and mouth region of the face. The manipulations for configural information involved changing the distance between the eyes or the distance between the mouth and the nose. The manipulations for featural information involved changing the size of the eyes or the size of the mouth. Similar manipulations were applied in the House Dimensions Task, with top and bottom windows treated as eyes and mouth. In the Face Dimensions Task, both the signing deaf and hearing participants showed a larger inversion effect in the mouth condition than the eye condition. However, as compared to hearing participants, deaf participants showed smaller inversion effect in the mouth condition, because their performance in the inverted mouth condition was not compromised by inversion to the same extent as the hearing participants. In the House Dimensions Task, this effect was not present, suggesting that it was face specific. This effect could be explained by the redistributed attentional resources from the centre to peripheral visual fields of deaf participants.     

Face likeability mediates the memory-enhancing effect of face attractiveness in young but not older adults

Evidence of effects of face attractiveness on memory is mixed and little is known about the underlying mechanisms of this relationship. Previous work suggests a possible mediating role of affective responding to faces (i.e., face likeability) on the relationship between face attractiveness and memory. Age-related change in social motivation may reduce the relevance of face attractiveness in older adults, with downstream effects on memory. In the present study, 50 young and 51 older participants were presented with face-trait pairs. Faces varied in attractiveness. Participants then completed a face-trait associative recognition memory task and provided likeability ratings for each face. There was a memory-enhancing effect of face attractiveness in young (but not older) participants, which was partially mediated by face likeability. In addition, more attractive and less attractive (compared to moderately attractive) faces were more likely remembered by both young and older participants. This quadratic effect of face attractiveness on memory was not mediated by face likeability. Findings are discussed in the context of motivational influences on memory that vary with age.     

面孔吸引力观察者参照:“角度效应”的眼动研究

以标准的黑白面孔图片作为实验材料,让41名大学生观看不同倾斜角度(左倾、竖直和右倾)的面孔图片,并对之进行面孔吸引力的评价,同时用眼动仪记录被试的眼动数据。结果显示:(1)被试观看左倾和右倾面孔的平均瞳孔大小显著小于观看竖直面孔的平均瞳孔大小,观看左倾面孔的平均瞳孔大小显著大于右倾面孔;(2)被试对左倾和右倾面孔的平均注视时间显著短于对竖直面孔的平均注视时间,同时对左倾面孔的注视时间显著长于右倾面孔;(3)被试对左倾和右倾面孔的平均注视次数显著少于对竖直面孔的平均注视次数。实验结果表明,面孔的倾斜角度很可能是影响面孔吸引力的一个重要因素,在面孔吸引力的审美偏好中存在"角度效应",即竖直面孔的吸引力高于倾斜面孔的吸引力,左倾面孔的吸引力高于右倾面孔的吸引力。     

Children view own-age faces qualitatively differently to other-age faces

Like most own-group biases in face recognition, the own-age bias (OAB) is thought to be based either on perceptual expertise or socio-cognitive motivational mechanisms [Wolff, N., Kemter, K., Schweinberger, S. R., &; Wiese, H. (2013). What drives social in-group biases in face recognition memory? ERP evidence from the own-gender bias. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. doi:10.1093/scan/nst024]. The present study employed a recognition paradigm with eye-tracking in order to assess whether participants actively viewed faces of their own-age differently to that of other-age faces. The results indicated a significant OAB (superior recognition for own-age relative to other-age faces), provided that they were upright, indicative of expertise being employed for the recognition of own-age faces. However, the eye-tracking results indicate that viewing other-age faces was qualitatively different to the viewing of own-age faces, with more nose fixations for other-age faces. These results are interpreted as supporting the socio-cognitive model of the OAB.     

错认总比错过好——面孔视错觉的发生机制及其应用

面孔视错觉现象表现为个体从其他事物中感知到并不存在的面孔。面孔视错觉要素已广泛应用于艺术、广告及商品中,起到吸引注意、促进消费的作用。同时,先前的研究通过采用各种范式,发现患者在面孔视错觉的产生上同常人的差异,以及视错觉与视幻觉之间的联系。根据视觉加工通路的不同,相关范式可分为视错觉监测范式,以及视错觉辨认范式。前者侧重于基于提取的类面孔特征所做出的快速预测,后者侧重于主观期望引导个体对物体特征的提取,两者最终均会影响到后续的认知判断。日后研究可从面孔视错觉的发生机制出发,结合自上而下和自下而上两种加工通路,为面孔视错觉产生机制提供理论依据,并拓宽该要素在临床诊断及商业广告领域上的应用。     

男性化与女性化对面孔偏好的影响—— 基于图像处理技术和眼动的检验

采用图像处理技术和眼动探讨了性别二态线索对面孔偏好的影响。实验1发现非面孔线索未掩蔽和掩蔽时, 感知男性化技术与原始照片条件下女性化的男性面孔更有吸引力和信任度; 性别二态技术条件下, 非面孔线索未掩蔽时男性化的男性面孔更有吸引力和信任度。实验2表明被试对男性面孔的平均瞳孔大小和注视次数均大于和多于女性面孔, 首次注视时间短于女性面孔; 被试对男性化面孔的首次注视时间和首次注视持续时间均长于女性化面孔。