Abstract
Despite extensive research on face perception, few studies have investigated individuals’ knowledge about the physical features of their own face. In this study, 50 participants indicated the location of key features of their own face, relative to an anchor point corresponding to the tip of the nose, and the results were compared to the true location of the same individual’s features from a standardised photograph. Horizontal and vertical errors were analysed separately. An overall bias to underestimate vertical distances revealed a distorted face representation, with reduced face height. Factor analyses were used to identify separable subconfigurations of facial features with correlated localisation errors. Independent representations of upper and lower facial features emerged from the data pattern. The major source of variation across individuals was in representation of face shape, with a spectrum from tall/thin to short/wide representation. Visual identification of one’s own face is excellent, and facial features are routinely used for establishing personal identity. However, our results show that spatial knowledge of one’s own face is remarkably poor, suggesting that face representation may not contribute strongly to self-awareness.
Highlights
Face perception is a central topic in modern psychology
Our work provides a novel and systematic approach to a classic question of Gestalt psychology: how are configurations of multiple features represented in the brain as a composite pattern? Our results may be relevant to the considerable concern regarding one’s own facial structure and appearance in some individuals and cultures
The horizontal dimension is characterised by symmetry and homology, while the vertical dimension lacks both these attributes
Summary
The field has overwhelmingly used visual stimuli and focussed on face recognition, even when considering perception of one’s own face [1]. People see their own face only rarely – vanishingly rarely until the recent ready availability of mirrors. Several studies indicate a specific mechanism involved in recognising one’s own face (e.g., [2], see 3 for a review). Much of this literature has on focussed sensitivity to facial symmetry and its relation to effects of mirrors [4,5], and cerebral hemispheric specialisation [6]. The persistence of this advantage even when faces are inverted suggests that it relies on local rather than configural processing [7]
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