The perception of a familiar face is no more than the sum of its parts

Abstract

Why do faces become easier to recognize with repeated exposure? Previous research has suggested that familiarity may induce a qualitative shift in visual processing from an independent analysis of individual facial features to an analysis that includes information about the relationships amongst features (Farah, Wilson, Drain, & Tanaka, 1998; Maurer, Grand, & Mondloch, 2002). We tested this idea by using a ‘summation-at-threshold’ technique (Gold, Mundy, & Tjan, 2012; Nandy & Tjan, 2008), in which an observer's ability to recognize each individual facial feature shown independently is used to predict their ability to recognize all of the features shown in combination. We find that, although people are better overall at recognizing familiar than unfamiliar faces, their ability to integrate information across features is similar for unfamiliar and highly familiar faces and is well predicted by their ability to recognize each of the facial features shown in isolation. These results are consistent with the idea that familiarity has a quantitative effect on the efficiency with which information is extracted from individual features, rather than qualitative effect on the process by which features are combined.

Brain structure differences between Chinese and Caucasian cohorts: A comprehensive morphometry study

“…The fusiform gyrus plays a key role in face detection and identification (Gold et al, 2014; Gold, Mundy, & Tjan, 2012; Liu, Harris, & Kanwisher, 2010; McCarthy, Puce, Gore, & Allison, 1997). The differences between Oriental and Occidental groups in the processing of facial stimuli have been widely reported (Blais et al, 2008; Jack et al, 2009; Kim et al, 2006; Lee & Ham, 2008).…”

Understanding face perception through the contributions of bottom-up and top-down processing : a psychophysical approach

“…Second, in Experiment 2.2 testing face identity adaptation, we also found the gestalt effect in face adaptation that the aftereffect induced the wholeface adaptor was significantly larger than the linear summation of the aftereffects elicited by its two components (i.e., the top-half face part and the bottom-half face part). This provides additional evidence revealing the holistic property underlying face identity perception, consistent with previous findings (Donnelly & Davidoff, 1999;Goffaux & Rossion, 2006;Michel, et al, 2010;Schiltz, et al, 2010;J. W. Tanaka & Farah, 1993;J.…”

“…An extensively accepted view is that face perception is a holistic processing, i.e., rather than processing facial components or features independently, the visual system integrates them into a perceptual entirety of INTRODUCTION 7 the whole face. Early in the late 19th century, Sir Francis Galton (1883) proposed that "a face stimulus is perceived as whole, at a single glance, rather than as a collection of independent features" (cited in Goffaux & Rossion, 2006, p. 1023, which is believed to be the first public record of the holistic view of face perception. During the past decades, this notion has been testified and supported by a huge body of empirical studies (see reviews in Tsao & Livingstone, 2008), among which there are three main experimental paradigms.…”

“…The second line of the research evidence for the holistic nature of face perception comes from findings demonstrating that perceptual processing of one facial feature or face part is greatly affected by other features or by the whole face (Goffaux & Rossion, 2006;Schiltz, Dricot, Goebel, & Rossion, 2010; J. W. Tanaka & Farah, 1993;J. W. Tanaka, Kay, Grinnell, Stansfield, & Szechter, 1998;J.…”

“…However, the proneness of such mistakes disappears when the two face halves are misaligned. Researchers argue that this phenomenon is a compelling demonstration that face perception is an integrated process where facial features are processed interdependently (Goffaux & Rossion, 2006;Robbins, McKone, & Edwards, 2007;Rossion & Boremanse, 2008).…”