Abstract
Recognizing familiar faces requires a comparison of the incoming perceptual information with mental face representations stored in memory. Mounting evidence indicates that these representations adapt quickly to recently perceived facial changes. This becomes apparent in face adaptation studies where exposure to a strongly manipulated face alters the perception of subsequent face stimuli: original, non-manipulated face images then appear to be manipulated, while images similar to the adaptor are perceived as “normal.” The face adaptation paradigm serves as a good tool for investigating the information stored in facial memory. So far, most of the face adaptation studies focused on configural (second-order relationship) face information, mainly neglecting non-configural face information (i.e., that does not affect spatial face relations), such as color, although several (non-adaptation) studies were able to demonstrate the importance of color information in face perception and identification. The present study therefore focuses on adaptation effects on saturation color information and compares the results with previous findings on brightness. The study reveals differences in the effect pattern and robustness, indicating that adaptation effects vary considerably even within the same class of non-configural face information.
Highlights
Major theories propose that humans identify faces by matching them against mental representations stored and categorized in long-term memory (Bruce & Young, 1986)
The current study aims to fill the gap of lacking non-configural color adaptation studies by focusing on face adaptation effects on saturation alterations and comparing these effects with effects of alternative color information
According to the experimental design, a two-way, mixed-design analysis of variance (ANOVA) was calculated with the between-participants factor adaptation group
Summary
Major theories propose that humans identify faces by matching them against mental representations stored and categorized in long-term memory (Bruce & Young, 1986). Perspectives, and fluctuant variations of faces often cause them to appear differently than their mental representations stored in memory. Despite these ongoing changes, we perceive our environment as stable, and we can reliably identify faces, especially if they are personally familiar (Carbon, 2008). This performance is ensured by continuously adjusting our mental representations to the dynamics of the environment. Face images slightly manipulated in the direction of the adaptor, would be perceived as “normal” or “natural” since the images correspond with the updated representation (e.g., Webster & MacLin, 1999)
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