Abstract
Event Abstract Back to Event Disentangling the Study of Person Cue Processing from Face and Body Processing Justin Gaetano1*, Anna Brooks1 and Rick Zwan1 1 Southern Cross University, School of Health and Human Sciences, Australia According to Freeman and Ambady’s (2011) theory of person construal, categorical information about someone (e.g. their sex and race) both mediates and is mediated by lower-order factors (e.g. specific patterns of light) and higher-order factors (e.g. stereotypes and task demands). It is possible then there exists a neural array which processes categorical sex signals in a generalised manner, irrespective of the particular dimorphism transmitting those signals (e.g. gait pattern, body region, voice, etc.). However, a survey of the sex perception literature reveals that mechanisms are invariably discussed in terms of the particular stimuli used, with the most popular contenders being images of female and male faces. Due to strong evidence that faces are processed via specialised routes in the brain, predictions about sex-specialised arrays cannot be tested without comparing sex discrimination performance across a range of dimorphic stimuli. We argue here that as a partial-body representation, the hand is one such comparable stimulus, and is so for several empirical reasons. First of all, physical measures of the hand diverge by sex, and our research shows that observers are sensitive to those differences. Second, sensitivity changes as a function of racial similarity between the hand and its observer – that is, observers have an advantage for own-race hands as they do for own-race faces (Meissner & Brigham, 2001). Third, sex after-effects have been documented utilising not just faces (Rhodes et al., 2004) but also hands (Kovács et al., 2006). Fourth and finally, sex response strategies tend to be male-biased when viewing hands; an effect observed previously using faces as stimuli (Wild et al., 2000). We conclude this presentation with suggestions on how such psychophysical data might be utilised for the furthering of neuropsychological studies on sex processing. Keywords: visual sex discrimination, dimorphism, other person perception, perceptual biases, human hands Conference: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 27 Jul - 31 Jul, 2014. Presentation Type: Poster Topic: Sensation and Perception Citation: Gaetano J, Brooks A and Zwan R (2015). Disentangling the Study of Person Cue Processing from Face and Body Processing. Conference Abstract: XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00196 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 19 Feb 2015; Published Online: 24 Apr 2015. * Correspondence: Mr. Justin Gaetano, Southern Cross University, School of Health and Human Sciences, Coffs Harbour, Australia, justin.gaetano85@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Justin Gaetano Anna Brooks Rick Zwan Google Justin Gaetano Anna Brooks Rick Zwan Google Scholar Justin Gaetano Anna Brooks Rick Zwan PubMed Justin Gaetano Anna Brooks Rick Zwan Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.
Highlights
Postprint of: Gaetano, JM, Provost, S & van der Zwan, R 2015, 'Disentangling the study of person cue processing from face and body processing', Frontiers of Human Neuroscience: Event Abstract
If there are common sex processing mechanisms, we can expect similar outcomes to arise from tests of face- and hand-based sex discrimination
A: Caucasian and Asian observers of Asian hands showed symmetrical criteria shifts consistent with Male bias (MB), which diminished as male targets became common
Summary
Judgements about unknown others (e.g. whether they are female/male) are theoretically informed on the basis of sensory input and higher order factors such as familiarity[1]. Faces and hands are each associated with specialised neural populations. Questions about how sex is cortically processed tend to be couched solely in terms of a particular stimulus set (e.g. face perception). If there are common sex processing mechanisms, we can expect similar outcomes to arise from tests of face- and hand-based sex discrimination. – Caucasian and Asian observers will be more sensitive discriminating sex from own-race hands;. – Both races will adopt male-biased response criteria when handand face-based sex cues are degraded.
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