Identity Aftereffects, but Not Composite Effects, are Contingent on Contrast Polarity

People are very good at discriminating faces despite their gross similarity. Our ability to capitalize on the variance that exists between faces has been attributed to an adaptive face-coding system. Evidence from psychophysical adaptation paradigms has generally supported this view, although results from other paradigms have suggested alternative accounts. The composite face-effect (CFE), for example, has been used to argue that holistic processing supports face discrimination. The question addressed here is whether the notion of holistic processing can be integrated with the notion of an adaptive face-coding system. Experiment 1 clearly demonstrates that the CFE acts on contrast-reversed faces while experiment 2 reveals that face-space adaptation depends on contrast polarity, consistent with previous observations of contrast-reversal impairing discrimination performance. Our results suggest that two popular theoretical frame-works in the face-recognition literature can be integrated, with holistic processing occurring at an earlier stage than face discrimination.

[1]  Doris Y. Tsao,et al.  Mechanisms of face perception. , 2008, Annual review of neuroscience.

[2]  M. Giese,et al.  Norm-based face encoding by single neurons in the monkey inferotemporal cortex , 2006, Nature.

[3]  A. Little,et al.  Sex-contingent face after-effects suggest distinct neural populations code male and female faces , 2005, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[4]  Allison B Sekuler,et al.  Holistic Processing Is Not Correlated With Face-Identification Accuracy , 2010, Psychological science.

[5]  T. Valentine.  The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A: Human Experimental Psychology a Unified Account of the Effects of Distinctiveness, Inversion, and Race in Face Recognition , 2022 .

[6]  Bruno Rossion,et al.  Holistic Processing Is Finely Tuned for Faces of One's Own Race , 2006, Psychological science.

[7]  Valerie Goffaux,et al.  The horizontal and vertical relations in upright faces are transmitted by different spatial frequency ranges. , 2008, Acta psychologica.

[8]  Otto H. MacLin,et al.  Figural aftereffects in the perception of faces , 1999, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[9]  Rachel A Robbins,et al.  Can holistic processing be learned for inverted faces? , 2003, Cognition.

[10]  D. Levin.  Race as a visual feature: using visual search and perceptual discrimination tasks to understand face categories and the cross-race recognition deficit. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[11]  A. Little,et al.  Category contingent aftereffects for faces of different races, ages and species , 2008, Cognition.

[12]  G. Rhodes,et al.  Orientation-Contingent Face Aftereffects and Implications for Face-Coding Mechanisms , 2004, Current Biology.

[13]  N. Kanwisher,et al.  Can generic expertise explain special processing for faces? , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[14]  Michael L. Mack,et al.  Holistic processing of faces happens at a glance , 2009, Vision Research.

[15]  C. Jacques,et al.  The time course of the inversion effect during individual face discrimination. , 2007, Journal of vision.

[16]  G. Rhodes,et al.  Caricature Effects, Distinctiveness, and Identification: Testing the Face-Space Framework , 2000, Psychological science.

[17]  M. Webster,et al.  Adaptation to natural facial categories , 2002, Nature.

[18]  M. Farah,et al.  What is "special" about face perception? , 1998, Psychological review.

[19]  G. Hole,et al.  Evidence for Holistic Processing of Faces Viewed as Photographic Negatives , 1999, Perception.

[20]  Bruno Rossion,et al.  Faces are "spatial"--holistic face perception is supported by low spatial frequencies. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[21]  H. Wilson,et al.  fMRI evidence for the neural representation of faces , 2005, Nature Neuroscience.

[22]  D. Alais,et al.  The composite illusion requires composite face stimuli to be biologically plausible , 2009, Vision Research.

[23]  P. Cavanagh,et al.  The gender-specific face aftereffect is based in retinotopic not spatiotopic coordinates across several natural image transformations. , 2009, Journal of vision.

[24]  Jean Vincent Fonou Dombeu,et al.  Component-based face recognition. , 2008 .

[25]  B. Khurana,et al.  Not to be and then to be: visual representation of ignored unfamiliar faces. , 2000, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[26]  G. Hole.  Configurational Factors in the Perception of Unfamiliar Faces , 1994, Perception.

[27]  D. Maurer,et al.  The many faces of configural processing , 2002, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[28]  R. Galper,et al.  Recognition of faces in photographic negative , 1970 .

[29]  J. Sergent.  An investigation into component and configural processes underlying face perception. , 1984, British journal of psychology.

[30]  G. Rhodes,et al.  Fitting the Mind to the World: Adaptation and after-effects in high-level vision , 2005 .

[31]  Pietro Perona,et al.  Object class recognition by unsupervised scale-invariant learning , 2003, 2003 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2003. Proceedings..

[32]  E. Rolls,et al.  Size and contrast have only small effects on the responses to faces of neurons in the cortex of the superior temporal sulcus of the monkey , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[33]  K. Nakayama,et al.  Categorical perception of face identity in noise isolates configural processing. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[34]  A. O'Toole,et al.  Prototype-referenced shape encoding revealed by high-level aftereffects , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[35]  C. Chubb,et al.  The size-tuning of the face-distortion after-effect , 2001, Vision Research.

[36]  C. McManus,et al.  Sensitivity to the Displacement of Facial Features in Negative and Inverted Images , 1990, Perception.

[37]  R. Yin.  Looking at Upside-down Faces , 1969 .

[38]  Isabel Gauthier,et al.  Holistic Processing Predicts Face Recognition , 2011, Psychological science.

[39]  William G. Hayward,et al.  Race-contingent aftereffects suggest distinct perceptual norms for different race faces , 2008 .

[40]  E. McKone,et al.  Holistic processing for faces operates over a wide range of sizes but is strongest at identification rather than conversational distances , 2009, Vision Research.

[41]  Alison Harris,et al.  The Representation of Parts and Wholes in Face-selective Cortex , 2008, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[42]  J. Taubert.  Chimpanzee Faces are ‘Special’ to Humans , 2009, Perception.

[43]  Doris Y. Tsao,et al.  A face feature space in the macaque temporal lobe , 2009, Nature Neuroscience.

[44]  M. Farah,et al.  Parts and Wholes in Face Recognition , 1993, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[45]  B. Rossion.  Picture-plane inversion leads to qualitative changes of face perception. , 2008, Acta psychologica.

[46]  A. Young,et al.  Configurational Information in Face Perception , 1987, Perception.

[47]  K. D. De Valois,et al.  Stimulus selectivity of figural aftereffects for faces. , 2005, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[48]  Rachel A Robbins,et al.  No face-like processing for objects-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks , 2007, Cognition.

[49]  S. Dakin,et al.  Psychophysical evidence for a non-linear representation of facial identity , 2009, Vision Research.

[50]  G. Hole,et al.  Featural and Configurational Processes in the Recognition of Faces of Different Familiarity , 2000, Perception.

[51]  T. Valentine,et al.  Towards an Exemplar Model of Face Processing: The Effects of Race and Distinctiveness , 1992, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[52]  B. Rossion.  Distinguishing the cause and consequence of face inversion: the perceptual field hypothesis. , 2009, Acta psychologica.

[53]  R Kemp,et al.  Perception and Recognition of Normal and Negative Faces: The Role of Shape from Shading and Pigmentation Cues , 1996, Perception.

[54]  Volker Blanz,et al.  Component-Based Face Recognition with 3D Morphable Models , 2003, 2004 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshop.