ORCID Profile
0000-0003-1655-4297
Current Organisation
Australian National University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Psychology | Sensory Processes, Perception And Performance | Learning, Memory, Cognition And Language | Sensory Processes, Perception and Performance | Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology | Biological Psychology (Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, | Developmental Psychology And Ageing | Biological Psychology (Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, Physiological Psychology) | Psychology not elsewhere classified |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Behavioural and cognitive sciences | Expanding Knowledge in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences | Law Enforcement | Mathematical sciences
Related Links
Publications
Faces versus expertise: Early maturity of face recognition in children
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 16-03-2010
DOI: 10.1167/3.9.105
Types and timing of breastfeeding support and its impact on mothers' behaviours
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2010
DOI: 10.1111/J.1440-1754.2009.01643.X
Abstract: To determine the types and timing of breastfeeding support for mothers of newborn babies and the extent to which this affects breastfeeding intentions and behaviours in a region with low rates of breastfeeding initiation and duration. A cross-sectional study by interviewer-administrated questionnaire was undertaken of women birthing at a large teaching hospital in South Western Sydney, between August and October 2006 (n= 164), with a 2-week follow-up of breastfeeding or breastfeeding-intending women (n= 107). Types, timing and satisfaction with personal and professional sources of support (e.g. antenatal classes, help at birth, practical lessons on how to breastfeed, providing information, and attitude towards breastfeeding) and the impact of these on breastfeeding intention and behaviours were assessed. Most women had intended to breastfeed (76.2%), and, within the first 24 hours, 77.4% of babies were breastfed to some extent (45.1% exclusively), and at 2 weeks 65.9% were breastfed (9.7% exclusively). Women felt most supported by their partners and least supported by their health-care team. Antenatal classes, breastfeeding help within half an hour of birth and positive health-care team attitudes were related to improved breastfeeding intentions and behaviours. However, these supports were infrequently reported. Personal support was commonly reported although support delivered by professionals was related to better breastfeeding behaviours. Despite the effectiveness of professional support interventions, particularly those delivered in the antenatal and immediate post-natal period, access to these sources of support was very low. For breastfeeding outcomes to be improved, effective professional support strategies need to be much more widely available.
In what sense is implicit memory “episodic”? The effect of reinstating environmental context
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-2001
DOI: 10.3758/BF03196221
Abstract: We consider three aspects of the term episodic. Previous literature shows implicit memory does not make conscious autobiographical reference but does code an item's intrinsic context (e.g., perceptual detail). Here, we consider extrinsic context--namely, that not directly processed as part of item identification and not overtly relevant to the task. Study-test mismatch in environmental context (outdoors vs. indoors) reduced memory in an explicit stem-cued recall task but had no effect on repetition priming in an implicit stem completion task. This was true even for very low frequency words. We support the view that implicit memory reflects traces within perceptual (or semantic) knowledge-based systems that are instance specific but do not code the full spatiotemporal context information necessary to support conscious recollection. We also interpret our results as consistent with differences in environmental context specificity between free recall and recognition.
Tutorials in Visual Cognition
Publisher: Psychology Press
Date: 07-01-2011
Short-term implicit memory for words and nonwords.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 09-1995
Sensitivity of 4-year-olds to featural and second-order relational changes in face distinctiveness
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2006
DOI: 10.1016/J.JECP.2006.01.001
Abstract: Sensitivity to adult ratings of facial distinctiveness (how much an in idual stands out in a crowd) has been demonstrated previously in children age 5 years or older. Experiment 1 extended this result to 4-year-olds using a "choose the more distinctive face" task. Children's patterns of choice across item pairs also correlated well with those of adults. In Experiment 2, original faces were made more distinctive via local feature changes (e.g., bushier eyebrows) or via relational changes (spacing changes, e.g., eyes closer together). Some previous findings suggest that children's sensitivity develops more slowly to relational changes than to featural changes. However, when we matched featural and relational changes for effects on distinctiveness in adult participants, 4-year-olds were equally sensitive to both. Our results suggest that (a) 4-year-olds' face space has important aspects of structure in common with that of adults and that (b) there is no specific developmental delay for a second-order relational component of configural/holistic processing.
Isolating the holistic component of face recognition
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 15-03-2010
DOI: 10.1167/2.7.567
Can generic expertise explain special processing for faces?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.TICS.2006.11.002
Abstract: Does face recognition involve face-specific cognitive and neural processes ('domain specificity') or do faces only seem special because people have had more experience of in iduating them than they have of in iduating members of other homogeneous object categories ('the expertise hypothesis')? Here, we summarize new data that test these hypotheses by assessing whether classic face-selective effects - holistic processing, recognition impairments in prosopagnosia and fusiform face area activation - remain face selective in comparison with objects of expertise. We argue that evidence strongly supports domain specificity rather than the expertise hypothesis. We conclude that the crucial social function of face recognition does not reflect merely a general practice phenomenon and that it might be supported by evolved mechanisms (visual or nonvisual) and/or a sensitive period in infancy.
Adults with dyslexia show deficits on spatial frequency doubling and visual attention tasks
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-01-2004
DOI: 10.1002/DYS.263
Abstract: We examine the visual processing of high-functioning adults with developmental dyslexia (mean Performance IQ = 126.5) and current phonological problems. In comparison to an age- and IQ-matched control group, the group with dyslexia showed deficits in two tasks associated with magnocellular/dorsal pathway function. For the 'frequency doubling' stimulus (grating of 0.25 cpd modulated at 25 Hz counterphase flicker), contrast thresholds for detection were raised in the dyslexic group. In conjunction visual search, a display time sufficient for controls to achieve ceiling accuracy at all set sizes (30 ms per item) was inadequate to allow shifts of attention around the display for the group with dyslexia. In contrast, normal performance was found on 'popout' visual search and on a ventral stream acuity task. Correlational analysis revealed a significant relationship between degree of deficit in conjunction search and phonological difficulty. The deficits revealed were specific to functions that rely on magnocellular input. They cannot be attributed to concentration lapses, eye movement problems or slow reaction times in the dyslexic group.
Absolute versus relative difference measures of priming: Which is appropriate when baseline scores change with age?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2006
Face identity recognition in simulated prosthetic vision is poorer than previously reported and can be improved by caricaturing
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.VISRES.2017.06.002
Abstract: The visual prosthesis (or "bionic eye") has become a reality but provides a low resolution view of the world. Simulating prosthetic vision in normal-vision observers, previous studies report good face recognition ability using tasks that allow recognition to be achieved on the basis of information that survives low resolution well, including basic category (sex, age) and extra-face information (hairstyle, glasses). Here, we test within-category in iduation for face-only information (e.g., distinguishing between multiple Caucasian young men with hair covered). Under these conditions, recognition was poor (although above chance) even for a simulated 40×40 array with all phosphene elements assumed functional, a resolution above the upper end of current-generation prosthetic implants. This indicates that a significant challenge is to develop methods to improve face identity recognition. Inspired by "bionic ear" improvements achieved by altering signal input to match high-level perceptual (speech) requirements, we test a high-level perceptual enhancement of face images, namely face caricaturing (exaggerating identity information away from an average face). Results show caricaturing improved identity recognition in memory and/or perception (degree by which two faces look dissimilar) down to a resolution of 32×32 with 30% phosphene dropout. Findings imply caricaturing may offer benefits for patients at resolutions realistic for some current-generation or in-development implants.
Implicit and explicit memory performance in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2004
Face Aftereffects Predict Individual Differences in Face Recognition Ability
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 16-10-2012
Abstract: Face aftereffects are widely studied on the assumption that they provide a useful tool for investigating face-space coding of identity. However, a long-standing issue concerns the extent to which face aftereffects originate in face-level processes as opposed to earlier stages of visual processing. For ex le, some recent studies failed to find atypical face aftereffects in in iduals with clinically poor face recognition. We show that in in iduals within the normal range of face recognition abilities, there is an association between face memory ability and a figural face aftereffect that is argued to reflect the steepness of broadband-opponent neural response functions in underlying face-space. We further show that this correlation arises from face-level processing, by reporting results of tests of nonface memory and nonface aftereffects. We conclude that face aftereffects can tap high-level face-space, and that face-space coding differs in quality between in iduals and contributes to face recognition ability.
Impacts of impaired face perception on social interactions and quality of life in age-related macular degeneration: A qualitative study and new community resources.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 31-12-2018
A Robust Method of Measuring Other-Race and Other-Ethnicity Effects: The Cambridge Face Memory Test Format
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 30-10-2012
Diagnosing prosopagnosia in East Asian individuals: Norms for the Cambridge Face Memory Test-Chinese.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-07-2017
DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2017.1371682
Abstract: The Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) is widely accepted as providing a valid and reliable tool in diagnosing prosopagnosia (inability to recognize people's faces). Previously, large-s le norms have been available only for Caucasian-face versions, suitable for diagnosis in Caucasian observers. These are invalid for observers of different races due to potentially severe other-race effects. Here, we provide large-s le norms (N = 306) for East Asian observers on an Asian-face version (CFMT-Chinese). We also demonstrate methodological suitability of the CFMT-Chinese for prosopagnosia diagnosis (high internal reliability, approximately normal distribution, norm-score range sufficiently far above chance). Additional findings were a female advantage on mean performance, plus a difference between participants living in the East (China) or the West (international students, second-generation children of immigrants), which we suggest might reflect personality differences associated with willingness to emigrate. Finally, we demonstrate suitability of the CFMT-Chinese for in idual differences studies that use correlations within the normal range.
A long-term ecstasy-related change in visual perception
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-06-2007
Solving the upside-down puzzle: Why do upright and inverted face aftereffects look alike?
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 11-2010
DOI: 10.1167/10.13.1
Abstract: Face aftereffects for upright faces have been widely assumed to derive from face space and to provide useful information about its properties. Yet remarkably similar aftereffects have consistently been reported for inverted faces, a problematic finding because other paradigms argue that inverted faces are processed by different mechanisms from upright faces. Here, we identify a qualitative difference between upright and inverted face aftereffects. Using eye-height aftereffects, we tested for opponent versus multichannel coding of face dimensions by manipulating distance of the adaptor from the average, and face-specific versus shape-generic contributions via transfer of aftereffects between faces and simple T-shapes. Our results argue that (i) inverted face aftereffects derive entirely from shape-generic mechanisms, (ii) upright face aftereffects derive partly from shape-generic mechanisms but also have a substantial face space component, and (iii) both face-specific and shape-generic multidimensional spaces use opponent coding.
Are Faces Special?
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 28-07-2011
Categorical perception of face identity in noise isolates configural processing.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2001
Face identity aftereffects increase monotonically with adaptor extremity over, but not beyond, the range of natural faces (vol 98, pg 1, 2014)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2015
The decay of short-term implicit memory: Unpacking lag
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-1998
DOI: 10.3758/BF03201193
Abstract: McKone (1995) reported a short-lived repetition priming effect, superimposed on long-lived priming. This short-term implicit memory survived a few intervening items and several seconds for words but decayed precipitously for nonwords, producing a lag x lexicality interaction. Here, mechanisms of decay are studied by disconfounding the time delay and interference components of lag. In Experiment 1, time delay was varied while number of intervening items was held constant, and vice versa. In Experiment 2, priming was plotted as a function of time delay, with and without intervening items. Using a lexical decision task, both experiments found independent contributions of time and interference to the decay of short-term priming. Further, Experiment 2 attributed the lag x lexicality interaction to a particular sensitivity of nonword traces to interference. An illustration of how these effects might arise in the word recognition system is provided.
Distinguishing Norm-Based From Exemplar-Based Coding of Identity in Children: Evidence From Face Identity Aftereffects
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1037/A0025643
Abstract: Children's performance on face identification tests improves dramatically between age 4 and adolescence, yet the source of this improvement is controversial. We used face identity aftereffects to examine whether changes in the organization of face-space during childhood could be a source of this improvement. Specifically we tested whether 7- to 9-year-old children, like adults, show patterns of aftereffects predicted by coding facial identity relative to a norm or the patterns predicted by exemplar-based coding. Consistent with use of norm-based coding children's aftereffects were larger (a) for opposite than non-opposite adapt-test pairs equated for perceptual similarity, and (b) for adaptors far from the average than for adaptors closer to the average. In addition, face identity aftereffects were present by age 5, suggesting adult-like face-space properties by 5, though we did not conduct specific tests to distinguish norm-based from exemplar-based coding in this age group. We conclude that children's poor face identification skills cannot be attributed to a failure to use norm-based coding.
A critical period for faces: Other-race face recognition is improved by childhood but not adult social contact
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-09-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-019-49202-0
Abstract: Poor recognition of other-race faces is ubiquitous around the world. We resolve a longstanding contradiction in the literature concerning whether interracial social contact improves the other-race effect. For the first time, we measure the age at which contact was experienced. Taking advantage of unusual demographics allowing dissociation of childhood from adult contact, results show sufficient childhood contact eliminated poor other-race recognition altogether (confirming inter-country adoption studies). Critically, however, the developmental window for easy acquisition of other-race faces closed by approximately 12 years of age and social contact as an adult — even over several years and involving many other-race friends — produced no improvement. Theoretically, this pattern of developmental change in plasticity mirrors that found in language, suggesting a shared origin grounded in the functional importance of both skills to social communication. Practically, results imply that, where parents wish to ensure their offspring develop the perceptual skills needed to recognise other-race people easily, childhood experience should be encouraged: just as an English-speaking person who moves to France as a child (but not an adult) can easily become a native speaker of French, we can easily become “native recognisers” of other-race faces via natural social exposure obtained in childhood, but not later.
Deficits of long-term memory in ecstasy users are related to cognitive complexity of the task
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-02-2010
DOI: 10.1007/S00213-009-1766-2
Abstract: Despite animal evidence that methylenedioxymeth hetamine (ecstasy) causes lasting damage in brain regions related to long-term memory, results regarding human memory performance have been variable. This variability may reflect the cognitive complexity of the memory tasks. However, previous studies have tested only a limited range of cognitive complexity. Furthermore, comparisons across different studies are made difficult by regional variations in ecstasy composition and patterns of use. The objective of this study is to evaluate ecstasy-related deficits in human verbal memory over a wide range of cognitive complexity using subjects drawn from a single geographical population. Ecstasy users were compared to non-drug using controls on verbal tasks with low cognitive complexity (stem completion), moderate cognitive complexity (stem-cued recall and word list learning) and high cognitive complexity (California Verbal Learning Test, Verbal Paired Associates and a novel Verbal Triplet Associates test). Where significant differences were found, both groups were also compared to cannabis users. More cognitively complex memory tasks were associated with clearer ecstasy-related deficits than low complexity tasks. In the most cognitively demanding task, ecstasy-related deficits remained even after multiple learning opportunities, whereas the performance of cannabis users approached that of non-drug using controls. Ecstasy users also had weaker deliberate strategy use than both non-drug and cannabis controls. Results were consistent with the proposal that ecstasy-related memory deficits are more reliable on tasks with greater cognitive complexity. This could arise either because such tasks require a greater contribution from the frontal lobe or because they require greater interaction between multiple brain regions.
Dissociations between implicit and explicit memory in children: The role of strategic processing and the knowledge base
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2003
DOI: 10.1016/S0022-0965(03)00002-X
Abstract: A review of the literature shows that explicit memory develops substantially from three years of age to adulthood, while implicit memory remains stable across this age range. Previously, this developmental dissociation has been attributed to different memory systems, or to confounds with perceptual vs. conceptual processing. Prompted by an alternative developmental framework, the experiments reported here provide evidence against both interpretations. Instead, it will be argued that (a) the implicit-explicit developmental dissociation reflects differences in strategic processing (strategy use and metamemory) across childhood and (b) that implicit memory can show development if a child's knowledge base in the tested domain is developing with age.
A critical review of the development of face recognition: Experience is less important than previously believed
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2012
DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2012.660138
Abstract: Historically, it has been argued that face in iduation develops very slowly, not reaching adult levels until adolescence, with experience being the driving force behind this protracted improvement. Here, we challenge this view based on extensive review of behavioural and neural findings. Results demonstrate qualitative presence of all key phenomena related to face in iduation (encoding of novel faces, holistic processing effects, face-space effects, face-selective responses in neuroimaging) at the earliest ages tested, typically 3-5 years of age and in many cases even infancy. Results further argue for quantitative maturity by early childhood, based on an increasing number of behavioural studies that have avoided the common methodological problem of restriction of range, as well as event-related potential (ERP), but not functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. We raise a new possibility that could account for the discrepant fMRI findings-namely, the use of adult-sized head coils on child-sized heads. We review genetic and innate contributions to face in iduation (twin studies, neonates, visually deprived monkeys, critical periods, perceptual narrowing). We conclude that the role of experience in the development of the mechanisms of face identification has been overestimated. The emerging picture is that the mechanisms supporting face in iduation are mature early, consistent with the social needs of children for reliable person identification in everyday life, and are also driven to an important extent by our evolutionary history.
Memory conjunction errors for realistic faces are consistent with configural processing
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-2006
DOI: 10.3758/BF03193820
Abstract: Conjunction faces are formed from feature sets learned across different faces. In previous studies, false alarms ("old" responses) to conjunctions have been very high, approaching hits to old faces this is surprising, because, perceptually, upright faces are processed configurally, with strong integration of parts into the whole. We test the idea that the atypical reliance on unrelated parts could be due to using unnatural line drawings as stimuli, and to forming conjunctions across external features (e.g., hair) and internal features (e.g., eyes, mouth). We used realistic face stimuli and conjunctions made entirely from internal features. Results were, as expected, consistent with configural processing for upright faces (hits to old faces much greater than FA to conjunctions) and not for inverted faces (hits to old = FA to conjunctions).
Reduced willingness to approach genuine smilers in social anxiety explained by potential for social evaluation, not misperception of smile authenticity
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 26-12-2019
DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2018.1561421
Abstract: We investigate perception of, and responses to, facial expression authenticity for the first time in social anxiety, testing genuine and polite smiles. Experiment 1 (
Improving face identity perception in age-related macular degeneration via caricaturing
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-10-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-018-33543-3
Abstract: Patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have difficulty recognising people’s faces. We tested whether this could be improved using caricaturing: an image enhancement procedure derived from cortical coding in a perceptual ‘face-space’. Caricaturing exaggerates the distinctive ways in which an in idual’s face shape differs from the average. We tested 19 AMD-affected eyes (from 12 patients ages 66–93 years) monocularly, selected to cover the full range of vision loss. Patients rated how different in identity people’s faces appeared when compared in pairs (e.g., two young men, both Caucasian), at four caricature strengths (0, 20, 40, 60% exaggeration). This task gives data reliable enough to analyse statistically at the in idual-eye level. All 9 eyes with mild vision loss (acuity ≥ 6/18) showed significant improvement in identity discrimination (higher dissimilarity ratings) with caricaturing. The size of improvement matched that in normal-vision young adults. The caricature benefit became less stable as visual acuity further decreased, but caricaturing was still effective in half the eyes with moderate and severe vision loss (significant improvement in 5 of 10 eyes at acuities from 6/24 to poorer than /360). We conclude caricaturing has the potential to help many AMD patients recognise faces.
Implicit False Memory: Effects of Modality and Multiple Study Presentations on Long-Lived Semantic Priming
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2000
Sports physiotherapists’ contribution to the sports and exercise medicine team: moving forward, together
Publisher: BMJ
Date: 07-11-2023
Orientation invariance in naming rotated objects: Individual differences and repetition priming
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-1999
DOI: 10.3758/BF03213120
Abstract: In naming drawings of complex common objects, unpracticed naming times increase with rotation away from the upright, but this orientation effect is attenuated with practice. In principle, attenuation could result from learning to extract orientation-invariant information or from learning view-specific representations at the trained orientations. We contrasted these approaches by examining repetition priming for prime-target pairs presented on successive trials in either the same orientation (horse at 51 degrees primes horse at 51 degrees) or a different orientation (horse at 154 degrees primes horse at 51 degrees), for two subgroups of subjects. One subgroup showed no orientation effect, even when unpracticed, and a correspondingly high generalization of priming across different views. The other subgroup initially showed high sensitivity to misorientation and little priming across orientations but, with sufficient practice, came to show no orientation effect and complete generalization of priming. Thus, some subjects always used orientation-invariant procedures, whereas others learned to do so.
Aftereffects for face attributes with different natural variability: Adapter position effects and neural models.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.33.3.570
Abstract: Adaptation to distorted faces is commonly interpreted as a shift in the face-space norm for the adapted attribute. This article shows that the size of the aftereffect varies as a function of the distortion level of the adapter. The pattern differed for different facial attributes, increasing with distortion level for symmetric deviations of eye height and decreasing for asymmetric deviations. These results are interpreted in terms of different coding ranges for the 2 facial attributes, arising from differences in eye-height variability in natural face images (large for symmetric, small for asymmetric). Neural models developed in low-level vision also are applied to facial attributes, contrasting a 2-pool (norm-based) and a multichannel (exemplar-based) model. The adapter position effects generally support a norm-based model, as did a finding that perception of stimuli further from the norm than the adapter was shifted in the direction of the norm, rather than repulsed away from the adapter.
Do people have insight into their face recognition abilities?
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2017
DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2016.1161058
Abstract: Diagnosis of developmental or congenital prosopagnosia (CP) involves self-report of everyday face recognition difficulties, which are corroborated with poor performance on behavioural tests. This approach requires accurate self-evaluation. We examine the extent to which typical adults have insight into their face recognition abilities across four experiments involving nearly 300 participants. The experiments used five tests of face recognition ability: two that tap into the ability to learn and recognize previously unfamiliar faces [the Cambridge Face Memory Test, CFMT Duchaine, B., & Nakayama, K. (2006). The Cambridge Face Memory Test: Results for neurologically intact in iduals and an investigation of its validity using inverted face stimuli and prosopagnosic participants. Neuropsychologia, 44(4), 576–585. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.07.001 and a newly devised test based on the CFMT but where the study phases involve watching short movies rather than viewing static faces—the CFMT-Films] and three that tap face matching [Benton Facial Recognition Test, BFRT Benton, A., Sivan, A., Hamsher, K., Varney, N., & Spreen, O. (1983). Contribution to neuropsychological assessment. New York: Oxford University Press and two recently devised sequential face matching tests]. Self-reported ability was measured with the 15-item Kennerknecht et al. questionnaire [Kennerknecht, I., Ho, N. Y., & Wong, V. C. (2008). Prevalence of hereditary prosopagnosia (HPA) in Hong Kong Chinese population. American Journal of Medical Genetics Part A, 146A(22), 2863–2870. doi:10.1002/ajmg.a.32552] two single-item questions assessing face recognition ability and a new 77-item meta-cognition questionnaire. Overall, we find that adults with typical face recognition abilities have only modest insight into their ability to recognize faces on behavioural tests. In a fifth experiment, we assess self-reported face recognition ability in people with CP and find that some people who expect to perform poorly on behavioural tests of face recognition do indeed perform poorly. However, it is not yet clear whether in iduals within this group of poor performers have greater levels of insight (i.e., into their degree of impairment) than those with more typical levels of performance.
Face-blind for other-race faces: Individual differences in other-race recognition impairments
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1037/XGE0000249
Abstract: We report the existence of a previously undescribed group of people, namely in iduals who are so poor at recognition of other-race faces that they meet criteria for clinical-level impairment (i.e., they are "face-blind" for other-race faces). Testing 550 participants, and using the well-validated Cambridge Face Memory Test for diagnosing face blindness, results show the rate of other-race face blindness to be nontrivial, specifically 8.1% of Caucasians and Asians raised in majority own-race countries. Results also show risk factors for other-race face blindness to include: a lack of interracial contact and being at the lower end of the normal range of general face recognition ability (i.e., even for own-race faces) but not applying less in iduating effort to other-race than own-race faces. Findings provide a potential resolution of contradictory evidence concerning the importance of the other-race effect (ORE), by explaining how it is possible for the mean ORE to be modest in size (suggesting a genuine but minor problem), and simultaneously for in iduals to suffer major functional consequences in the real world (e.g., eyewitness misidentification of other-race offenders leading to wrongful imprisonment). Findings imply that, in legal settings, evaluating an eyewitness's chance of having made an other-race misidentification requires information about the underlying face recognition abilities of the in idual witness. Additionally, analogy with prosopagnosia (inability to recognize even own-race faces) suggests everyday social interactions with other-race people, such as those between colleagues in the workplace, will be seriously impacted by the ORE in some people. (PsycINFO Database Record
Domain-specific development of face memory but not face perception
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-10-2013
DOI: 10.1111/DESC.12089
Abstract: How does the remarkable human ability for face recognition arise over development? Competing theories have proposed either late maturity (beyond 10 years) or early maturity (before 5 years), but have not distinguished between perceptual and memory aspects of face recognition. Here, we demonstrate a perception-memory dissociation. We compare rate of development for (adult, human) faces versus other social stimuli (bodies), other discrete objects (cars), and other categories processed in discrete brain regions (scenes, bodies), from 5 years to adulthood. For perceptual discrimination, performance improved with age at the same rate for faces and all other categories, indicating no domain-specific development. In contrast, face memory increased more strongly than non-face memory, indicating domain-specific development. The results imply that each theory is partly true: the late maturity theory holds for face memory, and the early maturity theory for face perception.
Aftereffects support opponent coding of face gender
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 20-12-2013
DOI: 10.1167/13.14.16
Abstract: Many aspects of faces derived from structural information appear to be neurally represented using norm-based opponent coding. Recently, however, Zhao, Seriès, Hancock, and Bednar (2011) have argued that another aspect with a strong structural component, namely face gender, is instead multichannel coded. Their conclusion was based on finding that face gender aftereffects initially increased but then decreased for adaptors with increasing levels of gender caricaturing. Critically, this interpretation rests on the untested assumption that caricaturing the differences between male and female composite faces increases perceived sexual dimorphism (masculinity/femininity) of faces. We tested this assumption in Study 1 and found that it held for male, but not female faces. A multichannel account cannot, therefore, be ruled out, although a decrease in realism of adaptors was observed that could have contributed to the decrease in aftereffects. However, their aftereffects likely reflect low-level retinotopic adaptation, which was not minimized for most of their participants. In Study 2 we minimized low-level adaptation and found that face gender aftereffects were strongly positively related to the perceived sexual dimorphism of adaptors. We found no decrease for extreme adaptors, despite testing adaptors with higher perceived sexual dimorphism levels than those used by Zhao et al. These results are consistent with opponent coding of higher-level dimensions related to the perception of face gender.
Short-term implicit memory: Visual, auditory, and cross-modality priming
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-2000
DOI: 10.3758/BF03212991
Abstract: Short-term implicit memory was examined for mixed auditory (A) and visual (V) stimuli. In lexical decision, words and nonwords were repeated at lags of 0, 1, 3, and 6 intervening trials, in four prime-target combinations (VV, VA, AV, AA). Same-modality repetition priming showed a lag x lexicality interaction for visual stimuli (nonwords decayed faster), but not for auditory stimuli (longer lasting smooth decay for both words and nonwords). These modality differences suggest that short-term priming has a perceptual locus, with the phonological lexicon maintaining stimuli active longer than the orthographic lexicon and treating pseudowords as potential words. We interpret these differences in terms of the different memory needs of speech recognition and text reading. Weak cross-modality short-term priming was present for words and nonwords, indicating recoding between perceptual forms.
Orientation tuning of human face processing estimated by contrast matching in transparency displays
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2006
DOI: 10.1016/J.VISRES.2005.11.014
Abstract: Upright images of faces appear more salient than faces of other orientations. We exploited this effect in a titration experiment where faces were superimposed in transparency. By manipulating the physical contrast of the component images, we measured the degree of perceptual dominance as function of the orientation of the face in the image plane. From these measurements, we obtain the orientation tuning of face processing, which is well approximated by a Gaussian function with a SD of about 45 deg and mean centered on upright. Faces predominantly lit from above and from below produced very similar results. However, when presented with scrambled faces observers showed no orientation preference. We argue that these results can be explained by the existence of specialized face processing mechanisms with an orientation tuning with a bandwidth of approximately 90 deg, predominantly centered on the upright orientation and easily disrupted by alterations of the normal facial configuration.
Fearful faces drive gaze-cueing and threat bias effects in children on the lookout for danger
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-07-2015
DOI: 10.1111/DESC.12203
Abstract: Most developmental studies of face emotion processing show faces in isolation, in the absence of any broader context. Here we investigate two types of interactions between expression and threat contexts. First, in adults, following of another person's direction of social attention is increased when that person shows fear and the context requires vigilance for danger. We investigate whether this also occurs in children. Using a Posner-style eye-gaze cueing paradigm, we tested whether children would show greater gaze-cueing from fearful than happy expressions when the task was to be vigilant for possible dangerous animals. Testing across the 8-12-year-old age range, we found this fear priority effect was absent in the youngest children but developed to reach adult levels in the oldest children. However, even the oldest children were unable to sustain fear-prioritization when the onset of the target was delayed. Second, we addressed the development of 'threat bias' - namely faster identification of dangerous animals than safe animals - in the social context provided by expressive faces. In our non-anxious s les (i.e. with typical-population levels of anxiety), adults showed a threat bias regardless of the expression or looking direction of the just-seen cue face whereas 8-12-year-olds only showed a threat bias when the just-seen cue face displayed fear. Overall, the results argue that some, but not all, aspects of expression-context interactions are mature by 12 years of age.
What shape are the neural response functions underlying opponent coding in face space? A psychophysical investigation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2010
DOI: 10.1016/J.VISRES.2009.11.016
Abstract: Recent evidence has shown that face space represents facial identity information using two-pool opponent coding. Here we ask whether the shape of the monotonic neural response functions underlying such coding is linear (i.e. face space codes all equal-sized physical changes with equal sensitivity) or nonlinear (e.g. face space shows greater coding sensitivity around the average face). Using adaptation aftereffects and pairwise discrimination tasks, our results for face attributes of eye height and mouth height demonstrate linear shape including for bizarre faces far outside the normal range. We discuss how linear coding explains some results in the previous literature, including failures to find that adaptation enhances face discrimination, and suggest possible reasons why face space can maintain detailed coding of values far outside the normal range. We also discuss specific nonlinear coding models needed to explain other findings, and conclude face space appears to use a mixture of linear and nonlinear representations.
Orientation tuning of human face processing estimated by contrast matching in transparency displays
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 15-03-2010
DOI: 10.1167/1.3.335
New Tests to Measure Individual Differences in Matching and Labelling Facial Expressions of Emotion, and Their Association with Ability to Recognise Vocal Emotions and Facial Identity
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 28-06-2013
Four-to-six-year-old children use norm-based coding in face-space
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 05-2010
DOI: 10.1167/10.5.18
Abstract: Children's performance on face perception tests does not reach adult levels until adolescence, a result which, a priori, could be due to qualitative change in face mechanisms with age, quantitative change in these mechanisms, or improvements in general cognitive abilities that are not face-specific (e.g., memory, attention). In adults, the major functional mechanisms of face recognition include holistic/configural processing and face-space coding. Previous research has established that holistic/configural processing is present by 4-6 years of age. Very little, however, is known about face-space coding in children. Here, we demonstrate that 4-6-year-old children show adaptation aftereffects for figural distortions (expanded/contracted, eyes up/down), providing the first evidence of aftereffects for identity-relevant information in children younger than 8 years. We also show that in 4-5 year-olds, as in adults, face aftereffects are stronger for adaptors far from the average (extreme distortions) than for adaptors closer to the average (mild distortions). This result provides the first compelling evidence that face-space coding is norm-based in children younger than 8 years of age, and rules out a qualitative shift from exemplar-based to norm-based coding as the source of developmental improvement in face identification performance beyond preschool age.
Adaptation and Face Perception: How Aftereffects Implicate Norm-Based Coding of Faces
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 05-05-2005
Early maturity of face processing in children: Local and relational distinctiveness effects in 7-year-olds
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-2003
The evidence rejects the expertise hypothesis: Reply to Gauthier & Bukach
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.COGNITION.2006.05.014
Abstract: In Robbins, R. & McKone, E. (2006). No face-like processing for object-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks. Cognition this issue, we showed face-like holistic/configural processing does not occur for objects-of-expertise on standard paradigms including inversion, part-whole, part-in-configurally-transformed-whole, and the standard composite task. In this reply to the discussion by Gauthier, I., & Bukach, C. (2006). Should we reject the expertise hypothesis? Cognition, this issue, we focus on several issues: the fact that they do not dispute our review of previous data the strength of null effects obtained from multiple studies and paradigms the evidence for domain-specificity of the neural substrate supporting face processing the difference between the expertise hypothesis (as a theory about the origin of face processing) and studies of how experience affects object processing in general and the problems with G&B's proposed alteration to the standard composite paradigm. We argue that overwhelming evidence suggests the expertise hypothesis should be put to rest so that researchers can focus on what the origin of "special" processing for faces actually is, and investigate the many interesting changes to object recognition that do occur with experience.
Perceived emotion genuineness: Normative ratings for popular facial expression stimuli and the development of perceived-as-genuine and perceived-as-fake sets
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-12-2017
DOI: 10.3758/S13428-016-0813-2
Abstract: In everyday social interactions, people's facial expressions sometimes reflect genuine emotion (e.g., anger in response to a misbehaving child) and sometimes do not (e.g., smiling for a school photo). There is increasing theoretical interest in this distinction, but little is known about perceived emotion genuineness for existing facial expression databases. We present a new method for rating perceived genuineness using a neutral-midpoint scale (-7 = completely fake 0 = don't know +7 = completely genuine) that, unlike previous methods, provides data on both relative and absolute perceptions. Normative ratings from typically developing adults for five emotions (anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and happiness) provide three key contributions. First, the widely used Pictures of Facial Affect (PoFA i.e., "the Ekman faces") and the Radboud Faces Database (RaFD) are typically perceived as not showing genuine emotion. Also, in the only published set for which the actual emotional states of the displayers are known (via self-report the McLellan faces), percepts of emotion genuineness often do not match actual emotion genuineness. Second, we provide genuine/fake norms for 558 faces from several sources (PoFA, RaFD, KDEF, Gur, FacePlace, McLellan, News media), including a list of 143 stimuli that are event-elicited (rather than posed) and, congruently, perceived as reflecting genuine emotion. Third, using the norms we develop sets of perceived-as-genuine (from event-elicited sources) and perceived-as-fake (from posed sources) stimuli, matched on sex, viewpoint, eye-gaze direction, and rated intensity. We also outline the many types of research questions that these norms and stimulus sets could be used to answer.
Face recognition impairments despite normal holistic processing and face space coding: Evidence from a case of developmental prosopagnosia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2010
DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2011.613372
Abstract: Holistic processing and face space coding are widely considered primary perceptual mechanisms behind good face recognition. Here, however, we present the case of S.P., a developmental prosopagnosic who demonstrated severe impairments in face memory and face perception, yet showed normal holistic processing and face space coding. Across three composite experiments, S.P. showed normal-strength holistic processing for upright faces and no composite effect for inverted faces. Across five aftereffect experiments, S.P. showed normal-sized face aftereffects, which derived normally from face space rather than shape-generic mechanisms. The case of S.P. implies: (a) normal holistic processing and face space coding can be insufficient for good face recognition even when present in combination and (b) the focus of recent literature on holistic processing and face space should be expanded to include other potential face processing mechanisms (e.g., part-based processing). Our article also highlights the importance of internal task reliability in drawing inferences from single-case studies.
Face ethnicity and measurement reliability affect face recognition performance in developmental prosopagnosia: Evidence from the Cambridge Face Memory Test–Australian
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2011
DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2011.616880
Abstract: The Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT, Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006) provides a validated format for testing novel face learning and has been a crucial instrument in the diagnosis of developmental prosopagnosia. Yet, some in iduals who report everyday face recognition symptoms consistent with prosopagnosia, and are impaired on famous face tasks, perform normally on the CFMT. Possible reasons include measurement error, CFMT assessment of memory only at short delays, and a face set whose ethnicity is matched to only some Caucasian groups. We develop the "CFMT-Australian" (CFMT-Aus), which complements the CFMT-original by using ethnicity better matched to a different European subpopulation. Results confirm reliability (.88) and validity (convergent, ergent using cars, inversion effects). We show that face ethnicity within a race has subtle but clear effects on face processing even in normal participants (includes cross-over interaction for face ethnicity by perceiver country of origin in distinctiveness ratings). We show that CFMT-Aus clarifies diagnosis of prosopagnosia in 6 previously ambiguous cases. In 3 cases, this appears due to the better ethnic match to prosopagnosics. We also show that face memory at short (<3-min), 20-min, and 24-hr delays taps overlapping processes in normal participants. There is some suggestion that a form of prosopagnosia may exist that is long delay only and/or reflects failure to benefit from face repetition.
Early maturity of face recognition: No childhood development of holistic processing, novel face encoding, or face-space
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2009
DOI: 10.1016/J.COGNITION.2009.02.004
Abstract: Historically, it was believed the perceptual mechanisms involved in in iduating faces developed only very slowly over the course of childhood, and that adult levels of expertise were not reached until well into adolescence. Over the last 10 years, there has been some erosion of this view by demonstrations that all adult-like behavioural properties are qualitatively present in young children and infants. Determining the age of maturity, however, requires quantitative comparison across age groups, a task made difficult by the need to disentangle development in face perception from development in all the other cognitive factors that affect task performance. Here, we argue that full quantitative maturity is reached early, by 5-7 years at the latest and possibly earlier. This is based on a comprehensive literature review of results in the 5-years-to-adult age range, with particular focus on the results of the few previous studies that are methodologically suitable for quantitative comparison of face effects across age, plus three new experiments testing development of holistic/configural processing (faces versus objects, disproportionate inversion effect), ability to encode novel faces (assessed via implicit memory) and face-space (own-age bias).
Children can discriminate the authenticity of happy but not sad or fearful facial expressions, and use an immature intensity-only strategy
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 05-05-2015
Distinguishing true from false memories via lexical decision as a perceptual implicit test
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 2004
Face identity aftereffects increase monotonically with adaptor extremity over, but not beyond, the range of natural faces
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.VISRES.2014.01.007
Abstract: Face identity aftereffects have been used to test theories of the neural coding underlying expert face recognition. Previous studies reported larger aftereffects for adaptors that are morphed further from the average face than for adaptors closer to the average, which appeared to support opponent coding along face-identity dimensions. However, only two levels were tested and it is not clear where they were located relative to the range of naturally occurring faces. This range is of interest given the functional need of the visual system both to produce good discrimination of real everyday faces and to process novel kinds of faces that we may encounter. Here, Experiment 1 establishes the boundary of faces judged as being able to occur in everyday life. Experiment 2 then shows that aftereffects increase with adaptor extremity up to this natural-range boundary, drop significantly immediately outside the boundary, and then remain stable with no drop towards zero even for highly distorted adaptors far beyond the boundary. Computational modelling shows that this unexpected pattern cannot be explained either by a simple opponent or by a classic multichannel model. However, its qualitative features can be captured either by a combination of opponent and multichannel coding (raising the possibility that not all identity-related face dimensions are opponent coded), or by a 3-pool model containing two S-shaped-response channels and a central bell-shaped channel around the average face (raising the possibility of unexpected similarities with coding of eye and head direction).
Explicit contamination in “implicit” memory for new associations
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-1997
DOI: 10.3758/BF03211291
Abstract: In one view of implicit memory, priming arises from modification of preexisting representations however, the role of such representations is currently in doubt following findings of implicit memory for newly formed associations. Closer consideration of studies reporting this effect, and of others that have failed to obtain it, suggests that such priming might results from the employment of explicit memory strategies. With measures designed to permit exclusion of such strategies, three experiments using lexical decision and stem-completion tasks found no evidence of truly implicit memory for unrelated pairs. Instead, priming was found only in those subjects (50% of the total in one experiment) who reported using explicit memory in stem completion. Contrary to previous conclusions, the results indicate a role for established representations in explaining implicit memory.
A new theoretical approach to improving face recognition in disorders of central vision: Face caricaturing
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 17-02-2014
DOI: 10.1167/14.2.12
Abstract: Damage to central vision, of which age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause, leaves patients with only blurred peripheral vision. Previous approaches to improving face recognition in AMD have employed image manipulations designed to enhance early-stage visual processing (e.g., magnification, increased HSF contrast). Here, we argue that further improvement may be possible by targeting known properties of mid- and/or high-level face processing. We enhance identity-related shape information in the face by caricaturing each in idual away from an average face. We simulate early- through late-stage AMD-blur by filtering spatial frequencies to mimic the amount of blurring perceived at approximately 10° through 30° into the periphery (assuming a face seen premagnified on a tablet computer). We report caricature advantages for all blur levels, for face viewpoints from front view to semiprofile, and in tasks involving perceiving differences in facial identity between pairs of people, remembering previously learned faces, and rejecting new faces as unknown. Results provide a proof of concept that caricaturing may assist in improving face recognition in AMD and other disorders of central vision.
Diagnosing prosopagnosia: Effects of ageing, sex, and participant–stimulus ethnic match on the Cambridge Face Memory Test and Cambridge Face Perception Test
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-2009
DOI: 10.1080/02643290903343149
Abstract: The Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and Cambridge Face Perception Test (CFPT) have provided the first theoretically strong clinical tests for prosopagnosia based on novel rather than famous faces. Here, we assess the extent to which norms for these tasks must take into account ageing, sex, and testing country. Data were from Australians aged 18 to 88 years (N = 240 for CFMT 128 for CFPT) and young adult Israelis (N = 49 for CFMT). Participants were unselected for face recognition ability most were university educated. The diagnosis cut-off for prosopagnosia (2 SDs poorer than mean) was affected by age, participant-stimulus ethnic match (within Caucasians), and sex for middle-aged and older adults on the CFPT. We also report internal reliability, correlation between face memory and face perception, correlations with intelligence-related measures, correlation with self-report, distribution shape for the CFMT, and prevalence of developmental prosopagnosia.
No face-like processing for objects-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.COGNITION.2006.02.008
Abstract: In the debate between expertise and domain-specific explanations of "special" processing for faces, a common belief is that behavioural studies support the expertise hypothesis. The present article refutes this view, via a combination of new data and review. We tested dog experts with confirmed good in iduation of exemplars of their breed-of-expertise. In all experiments, standard results were confirmed for faces. However, dog experts showed no face-like processing for dogs on three behavioural tasks (inversion the composite paradigm and sensitivity to contrast reversal). The lack of holistic/configural processing, indicated in the first two of these tests, is shown by review to be consistent rather than inconsistent with previous studies of objects-of-expertise.
Why does picture-plane inversion sometimes dissociate perception of features and spacing in faces, and sometimes not? Toward a new theory of holistic processing
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-2009
DOI: 10.3758/PBR.16.5.778
The Cambridge Car Memory Test: A task matched in format to the Cambridge Face Memory Test, with norms, reliability, sex differences, dissociations from face memory, and expertise effects
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-10-2011
DOI: 10.3758/S13428-011-0160-2
Abstract: Many research questions require a within-class object recognition task matched for general cognitive requirements with a face recognition task. If the object task also has high internal reliability, it can improve accuracy and power in group analyses (e.g., mean inversion effects for faces vs. objects), in idual-difference studies (e.g., correlations between certain perceptual abilities and face/object recognition), and case studies in neuropsychology (e.g., whether a prosopagnosic shows a face-specific or object-general deficit). Here, we present such a task. Our Cambridge Car Memory Test (CCMT) was matched in format to the established Cambridge Face Memory Test, requiring recognition of exemplars across view and lighting change. We tested 153 young adults (93 female). Results showed high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .84) and a range of scores suitable both for normal-range in idual-difference studies and, potentially, for diagnosis of impairment. The mean for males was much higher than the mean for females. We demonstrate independence between face memory and car memory (dissociation based on sex, plus a modest correlation between the two), including where participants have high relative expertise with cars. We also show that expertise with real car makes and models of the era used in the test significantly predicts CCMT performance. Surprisingly, however, regression analyses imply that there is an effect of sex per se on the CCMT that is not attributable to a stereotypical male advantage in car expertise.
The composite task reveals stronger holistic processing in children than adults for child faces
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 29-07-2009
Configural processing and face viewpoint.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2008
DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.34.2.310
Abstract: Configural/holistic processing, a key property of face recognition, has previously been examined only for front views of faces. Here, 6 experiments tested front (0 degrees ), three-quarter (45 degrees ), and profile views (90 degrees ), using composite and peripheral inversion tasks. Results showed an overall disadvantage in identifying profiles. This arose entirely from part-based processing: View effects were as strong for disrupted-configuration faces (inverted, misaligned, scrambled) as for normal-configuration faces. In contrast, configural processing (aligned-misaligned difference, upright-inverted difference) was equally strong for all views under both clear and degraded viewing conditions. Findings argue that, although part-based processing is weakened by lower natural frequency of the profile view and/or occlusion of key face features, neither of these variables influences configural processing. This suggests that the functional role of configural processing is to allow reliable face identification despite substantial variance in local information across different natural images. Results also show that only image-plane rotation of faces (upright through inverted) affects configural processing the contrast with depth rotation has potential implications for understanding the origin of configural processing in terms of innate versus experience-based expertise contributions.
Caricaturing as a general method to improve poor face recognition: Evidence from low-resolution images, other-race faces, and older adults
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 06-2019
DOI: 10.1037/XAP0000180
Abstract: There are multiple well-established situations in which humans' face recognition performance is poor, including for low-resolution images, other-race faces, and in older adult observers. Here we show that caricaturing faces-that is, exaggerating their appearance away from an average face-can provide a useful applied method for improving face recognition across all these circumstances. We employ a face-name learning task offering a number of methodological advantages (e.g., valid comparison of the size of the caricature improvement across conditions differing in overall accuracy). Across six experiments, we (a) extend previous evidence that caricaturing can improve recognition of low-resolution (blurred) faces (b) show for the first time that caricaturing improves recognition and perception of other-race faces and (c) show for the first time that caricaturing improves recognition in observers across the whole adult life span (testing older adults, M age = 71 years). In size, caricature benefits were at least as large where natural face recognition is poor (other-race, low resolution, older adults) as for the naturally best situation (own-race high-resolution faces in young adults). We discuss potential for practical applicability to improving face recognition in low-vision patients (age-related macular degeneration, bionic eye), security settings (police, passport control), eyewitness testimony, and prosopagnosia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Individual differences in the ability to recognise facial identity are associated with social anxiety
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 14-12-2011
Capacity limits in continuous old-new recognition and in short-term implicit memory
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 02-2001
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X01383929
Abstract: Using explicit memory measures, Cowan predicts a new circumstance in which the central capacity limit of 4 chunks should obtain. Supporting results for such an experiment, using continuous old-new recognition, are described. With implicit memory measures, Cowan assumes that short-term repetition priming reflects the central capacity limit. I argue that this phenomenon instead reflects limits within in idual perceptual processing modules.
Social and attention-to-detail subclusters of autistic traits differentially predict looking at eyes and face identity recognition ability
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-03-2016
DOI: 10.1111/BJOP.12188
Abstract: This study distinguished between different subclusters of autistic traits in the general population and examined the relationships between these subclusters, looking at the eyes of faces, and the ability to recognize facial identity. Using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) measure in a university-recruited s le, we separate the social aspects of autistic traits (i.e., those related to communication and social interaction AQ-Social) from the non-social aspects, particularly attention-to-detail (AQ-Attention). We provide the first evidence that these social and non-social aspects are associated differentially with looking at eyes: While AQ-Social showed the commonly assumed tendency towards reduced looking at eyes, AQ-Attention was associated with increased looking at eyes. We also report that higher attention-to-detail (AQ-Attention) was then indirectly related to improved face recognition, mediated by increased number of fixations to the eyes during face learning. Higher levels of socially relevant autistic traits (AQ-Social) trended in the opposite direction towards being related to poorer face recognition (significantly so in females on the Cambridge Face Memory Test). There was no evidence of any mediated relationship between AQ-Social and face recognition via reduced looking at the eyes. These different effects of AQ-Attention and AQ-Social suggest face-processing studies in Autism Spectrum Disorder might similarly benefit from considering symptom subclusters. Additionally, concerning mechanisms of face recognition, our results support the view that more looking at eyes predicts better face memory.
Not just fear and sadness: Meta-analytic evidence of pervasive emotion recognition deficits for facial and vocal expressions in psychopathy
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.NEUBIOREV.2012.08.006
Abstract: The present meta-analysis aimed to clarify whether deficits in emotion recognition in psychopathy are restricted to certain emotions and modalities or whether they are more pervasive. We also attempted to assess the influence of other important variables: age, and the affective factor of psychopathy. A systematic search of electronic databases and a subsequent manual search identified 26 studies that included 29 experiments (N = 1376) involving six emotion categories (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise) across three modalities (facial, vocal, postural). Meta-analyses found evidence of pervasive impairments across modalities (facial and vocal) with significant deficits evident for several emotions (i.e., not only fear and sadness) in both adults and children/adolescents. These results are consistent with recent theorizing that the amygdala, which is believed to be dysfunctional in psychopathy, has a broad role in emotion processing. We discuss limitations of the available data that restrict the ability of meta-analysis to consider the influence of age and separate the sub-factors of psychopathy, highlighting important directions for future research.
Acquisition of novel traces in short-term implicit memory: Priming for nonwords and new associations
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-1999
DOI: 10.3758/BF03211556
Abstract: McKone (1995) reported a short-lived repetition priming effect (up to 8 sec and three intervening items), superimposed on long-term priming. In lexical decision and naming, decay of this short-term implicit memory was faster for pseudowords than for words, suggesting an explanation in terms of transient activation of preexisting lexical representations. Here, we present two cases where, in contrast, preexperimental familiarity did not affect short-term priming, indicating acquisition of novel traces. Experiment 1 determined repetition priming in same-different judgments to lowercase-uppercase pairs for words, and for nonwords with three levels of wordlikeness. Across lags of 0, 1, and 6 intervening items (2-14 sec), short-term priming was the same for all stimuli, even random letter strings. Experiments 2 and 3 assessed priming in a double lexical decision task for old associations (orange-apple) and new associations (cigar-errand). Short-term priming for the association was equal in both cases.
Global face distortion aftereffects tap face-specific and shape-generic processes
Publisher: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)
Date: 17-10-2012
DOI: 10.1167/12.11.11
Abstract: Face aftereffects are commonly used to investigate the mechanisms underlying face processing, based on the assumption that they tap processes involved specifically with face-level coding (e.g., face space). However, face aftereffects could potentially arise from many levels of the visual system, and recent research has shown that one figural aftereffect (eye height) has both face-level and shape-generic components. Another very widely used figural manipulation is global face distortion. Here we investigate whether a global face distortion aftereffect (vertical compression) transfers to nonface stimuli, and if so, to what extent. Arguing for a mid- or high-level shape-generic component to our face aftereffect, we found significant face-to-object transfer even after minimizing retinotopic components. Arguing for an additional face-specific component, we found, first, that face-to-face aftereffects were significantly larger than face-to-object aftereffects and second, that this occurred only when the adaptor face was whole and intact rather than scrambled. Our results argue that global face distortion aftereffects are a useful tool for investigating face-space but that, to do so unambiguously, requires developing methods to minimize or account for the shape-generic contribution.
A strong role for nature in face recognition
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 08-03-2010
A long-term ecstasy-related change in visual perception
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-04-2007
DOI: 10.1007/S00213-007-0785-0
Abstract: The present study provides the first evidence of the long-term consequences of ecstasy use on visual processes thought to reflect serotonergic functions in the occipital lobe. Methylenedioxymeth hetamine ("ecstasy") is known to cause lasting changes to the serotonin system in animals, and convergent evidence suggests that similar changes occur in human ecstasy users. Other research suggests that serotonin may be involved in lateral inhibition between orientation sensitive neurons in the occipital lobe, and that disruption to the serotonin system causes an increase in the magnitude of the tilt aftereffect illusion that is known depend on those neurons. The aim of the present study was to determine if ecstasy users have detectable changes in occipital lobe behavioural functioning, as revealed by the tilt aftereffect illusion. Thirty ecstasy users and 34 non-drug using controls were compared on the magnitude of the tilt aftereffect illusion following adaptation to stimuli oriented at 15 and 40 degrees from vertical. Ecstasy users who had not used hetamines for 115 days or more had a larger average tilt aftereffect than non-drug using controls after adaptation to 40 degrees stimuli but not after adaptation to 15 degrees stimuli. Additionally, there was no difference between non-drug using controls and ecstasy users who had used hetamines within the last 61 days at either adaptation angle. The results were consistent with the proposal that ecstasy-related damage to the serotonin system causes behavioural changes on tests of visual perception processes that are thought to reflect serotonergic functions in the occipital lobe.
All tears are crocodile tears: Impaired perception of emotion authenticity in psychopathic traits
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1037/PER0000301
Abstract: In everyday life, other peoples' distress is sometimes genuine (e.g., real sadness) and sometimes pretended (e.g., feigned sadness aimed at manipulating others). Here, we present the first study of how psychopathic traits affect responses to genuine versus posed distress. Using facial expression stimuli and testing in idual differences across the general population (
Holistic processing for faces operates over a wide range of sizes but is strongest at identification rather than conversational distances
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1016/J.VISRES.2008.10.020
Abstract: How does holistic/configural processing, a key property of face perception, vary with distance from an observed person? Two techniques measured holistic processing in isolation from part-based contributions to face perception: salience bias to upright in transparency displays, and a difficult-to-see Mooney face. Results revealed an asymmetric inverted-U-shaped tuning to simulated observer-target distance (stimulus size and viewer-screen distance combinations). Holistic processing peaked at distances functionally relevant for identification during approach (2-10m equivalent head size=6-1.3 degrees ), fell off steeply at closer distances functionally relevant for understanding emotional nuances and speech (.25-2m), and operated over a very wide range of distances (from .46 to 23m, 47.5-0.6 degrees ).
Adaptive face coding contributes to individual differences in facial expression recognition independently of affective factors
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 04-2018
DOI: 10.1037/XHP0000463
Abstract: There are large, reliable in idual differences in the recognition of facial expressions of emotion across the general population. The sources of this variation are not yet known. We investigated the contribution of a key face perception mechanism, adaptive coding, which calibrates perception to optimize discrimination within the current perceptual "diet." We expected that a facial expression system that readily recalibrates might boost sensitivity to variation among facial expressions, thereby enhancing recognition ability. We measured adaptive coding strength with an established facial expression aftereffect task and measured facial expression recognition ability with 3 tasks optimized for the assessment of in idual differences. As expected, expression recognition ability was positively associated with the strength of facial expression aftereffects. We also asked whether in idual variation in affective factors might contribute to expression recognition ability, given that clinical levels of such traits have previously been linked to ability. Expression recognition ability was negatively associated with self-reported anxiety but not with depression, mood, or degree of autism-like or empathetic traits. Finally, we showed that the perceptual factor of adaptive coding contributes to variation in expression recognition ability independently of affective factors. (PsycINFO Database Record
Caricaturing faces to improve identity recognition in low vision simulations: How effective is current-generation automatic assignment of landmark points?
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 04-10-2018
Categorical and Coordinate Relations in Faces, or Fechner's Law and Face Space Instead?
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2005
DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.31.6.1181
Abstract: E. E. Cooper and T. J. Wojan (2000) applied the categorical-coordinate relations distinction to faces on the basis of a finding that two-eyes-up versus one-eye-up distortions had opposite effects in between-class (face normality) and within-class (face identity) tasks. However, Cooper and Wojan failed to match amount of metric change between their 2 deviation types and tested only 1 deviation level. In the present study, eyeheight was shifted (e.g., both eyes up or both eyes down vs. one eye up and one eye down) parametrically (11 levels) and normality and identity ratings obtained. There was no evidence of categorical changes in perception where these would have been predicted by Cooper and Wojan's theory. In all cases, the relationship between physical and perceived distortion followed Fechner's law. Differences across distortion types in Fechner threshold (the minimum deviation altering perceived normality or identity) are explained in terms of the variability associated with different dimensions in face space.
Importance of the inverted control in measuring holistic face processing with the composite effect and part-whole effect
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2013
Isolating the Special Component of Face Recognition: Peripheral Identification and a Mooney Face.
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2004
Understanding the Developmental Origins of Primate Face Recognition: Theoretical Commentary on Martin-Malivel and Okada (2007)
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.121.6.1437
Abstract: J. Martin-Malivel and K. Okada (2007, this issue) reported that chimpanzees raised with extensive social contact with humans show face discrimination abilities for human faces that exceed those for conspecific faces. Martin-Malivel and Okada have placed this finding in the theoretical context of the relative role of experience and innate face representations. The present article discusses the logic of the various styles of studies relevant to this question--considering primates without prior visual experience, sensitive periods, perceptual narrowing, childhood development, other-species effects, other-race effects, social quality of experience with nonconspecifics, and perceived social group membership--and also reviews the key current data. A case is made that there is still a long way to go in understanding whether there is an innate representation of conspecific faces, how tightly tuned any such representation is to conspecific morphology, and how experience obtained during different age brackets (e.g., infancy versus adulthood) affects discrimination and interacts with any innate representation.
Impaired holistic coding of facial expression and facial identity in congenital prosopagnosia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2011
Isolating Holistic Processing in Faces (And Perhaps Objects)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 22-06-2006
Can holistic processing be learned for inverted faces?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2003
DOI: 10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00020-9
Abstract: The origin of "special" processing for upright faces has been a matter of ongoing debate. If it is due to generic expertise, as opposed to having some innate component, holistic processing should be learnable for stimuli other than upright faces. Here we assess inverted faces. We trained subjects to discriminate identical twins using up to 1100 exposures to each twin in different poses and images. In the upright orientation, twin discrimination was supported by holistic processing. Removal of a single face feature had no effect on performance, and a composite effect (Young, A. W., Hellawell, D., & Hay, D.C. (1987). Configurational information in face perception. Perception 16 (6), 747-759) was obtained. In the inverted orientation, however, above chance identification ability relied on (a) image specific learning, or (b) tiny local feature differences not noticed in the upright faces. The failure to learn holistic processing for inverted faces indicates that, in contrast to the situation for objects (Tarr, M.J., & Pinker, S. (1989). Mental rotation and orientation-dependence in shape recognition. Cognitive Psychology 21 (2), 233-282), orientation specificity of face processing is highly stable against practice.
Memory for generalities: Access to higher-level categorical relationships in amnesia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-1998
Abstract: This paper presents results from four studies in which the distinction between exemplar and higher-level categorical knowledge was investigated in amnesic patients and non-memory impaired controls. After studying a series of face-occupation associations it was found that patients could only discriminate faces at a level of knowledge that was higher in a specified occupational hierarchy than the one studied. This effect was illustrated most clearly in Experiment 1, where patients discriminated the faces of educators from those of tradespeople accurately, but were unable to discriminate between the types of educator and types of tradespeople that they had originally studied. This differentiation in performance between exemplar and more general level knowledge in amnesia is referred to as preserved memory for generality. A similar tendency to discriminate faces at the higher occupational level was observed in Experiment 2, where the study context was changed to include subtypes of teacher and lecturer. For one patient there was some evidence of improvement in ability to discriminate at a level of categorisation that was not accessible in the first experiment (i.e. at the level of teacher/lecturer). In Experiment 3 we investigated the contribution of direct and indirect testing to results of the previous studies. It was found that indirect testing facilitated access to higher-level knowledge. Results of a final study indicated that non-memory-impaired controls also produced superior memory for generalities under suboptimal learning conditions. However, unlike patients, controls performed equally well on direct and indirect tests of higher-level knowledge. These results are discussed with reference to theories of amnesia and to explanations of the phenomenon in dementia.
A cultural setting where the other-race effect on face recognition has no social-motivational component and derives entirely from lifetime perceptual experience
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.COGNITION.2015.07.011
Abstract: Competing approaches to the other-race effect (ORE) see its primary cause as either a lack of motivation to in iduate social outgroup members, or a lack of perceptual experience with other-race faces. Here, we argue that the evidence supporting the social-motivational approach derives from a particular cultural setting: a high socio-economic status group (typically US Whites) looking at the faces of a lower status group (US Blacks) with whom observers typically have at least moderate perceptual experience. In contrast, we test motivation-to-in iduate instructions across five studies covering an extremely wide range of perceptual experience, in a cultural setting of more equal socio-economic status, namely Asian and Caucasian participants (N = 480) tested on Asian and Caucasian faces. We find no social-motivational component at all to the ORE, specifically: no reduction in the ORE with motivation instructions, including for novel images of the faces, and at all experience levels no increase in correlation between own- and other-race face recognition, implying no increase in shared processes and greater (not the predicted less) effort applied to distinguishing other-race faces than own-race faces under normal ("no instructions") conditions. Instead, the ORE was predicted by level of contact with the other-race. Our results reject both pure social-motivational theories and also the recent Categorization-In iduation model of Hugenberg, Young, Bernstein, and Sacco (2010). We propose a new dual-route approach to the ORE, in which there are two causes of the ORE-lack of motivation, and lack of experience--that contribute differently across varying world locations and cultural settings.
Familiar other-race faces show normal holistic processing and are robust to perceptual stress
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2007
DOI: 10.1068/P5499
Abstract: Other-race in iduals are remembered more poorly and receive less holistic/configural processing than same-race in iduals, at least when faces are novel. Here, we examine the amelioration of these effects with familiarity, using distinctiveness-matched Caucasian and Asian stimulus sets. We confirmed a cross-race deficit for upright faces following a single encoding trial, which disappeared rapidly with practice on a small set of other-race ‘friends’ and did not re-emerge when perceptual processing was put under stress (presentation in the periphery). We also examined holistic/configural processing for familiarised faces using the peripheral inversion effect (McKone, 2004 Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition30 181 – 197). A test for faces and nonface objects (dogs) confirmed the validity of this technique as providing a direct measure of holistic processing we then showed that, after 1 h of training, holistic processing was as strong for other-race as same-race faces. We conclude that practice with other-race in iduals can rapidly engage normal face-processing mechanisms.
Elevated Levels of Callous Unemotional Traits Are Associated With Reduced Attentional Cueing, With No Specificity for Fear or Eyes
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Date: 07-2015
DOI: 10.1037/PER0000108
Abstract: Three theoretical explanations for the affective facet of psychopathy were tested in in iduals with high levels of callous unemotional (CU) traits. Theory 1 (Blair) proposes specific difficulties in processing others' distress (particularly fear). Theory 2 (Dadds) argues for lack of attention to the eyes of faces. Theory 3 (Newman) proposes enhanced selective attention. The theories make contrasting predictions about how CU traits would affect cueing of attention from eye-gaze direction in distressed (i.e., fearful) faces eye-gaze direction in nondistressed (i.e., happy, neutral) faces and nonsocial stimuli (arrows). High CU adults (n = 33) showed reduced attentional cueing compared with low CU adults (n = 75) equally across all conditions (eye-gaze in distressed and nondistressed faces, arrows). The high CU group's ability to suppress following of eye-gaze emerged with practice while the low CU group showed no such reduction in gaze-cueing with practice. Overall accuracy and RTs were not different for the low and high CU groups indicating equivalent task engagement. Results support an enhanced selective attention account-consistent with Newman and colleagues' Response Modulation Hypothesis--in which high CU in iduals are able to suppress goal-irrelevant social and nonsocial information. The current study also provides novel evidence regarding the nature of gaze-following by tracking practice effects across blocks. While supporting the common assumption that following of gaze is typically mandatory, the results also imply this can be modified by in idual differences in personality.
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