Abstract
Participants performed three feature-complete face processing tasks involving detection of changes in: (1) feature size and (2) feature identity in successive matching tasks, and (3) feature orientation. In each experiment, information in the top (eyes) and bottom (mouths) parts of faces were manipulated. All tasks were performed with upright and inverted faces. Data were analyzed first using group-based analysis of signal detection measures (sensitivity and bias), and second using analysis of multidimensional measures of sensitivity and bias along with probit regression models in order to draw inferences about independence and separability as defined within general recognition theory (Ashby and Townsend, 1986). The results highlighted different patterns of perceptual and decisional influences across tasks and orientations. There was evidence of orientation specific configural effects (violations of perceptual independence, perceptual seperability and decisional separabilty) in the Feature Orientation Task. For the Feature Identity Task there were orientation specific performance effects and there was evidence of configural effects (violations of decisional separability) in both orientations. Decisional effects are consistent with previous research (Wenger and Ingvalson, 2002, 2003; Richler et al., 2008; Cornes et al., 2011). Crucially, the probit analysis revealed violations of perceptual independence that remain undetected by marginal analysis.
Highlights
Studies of face perception have used various tasks to explore how faces are processed as wholes or configurations
Data across the three repetitions were combined for each participant to form six confusion matrices, one for each combination of face orientation and task
Estimates of sensitivity (d ) and bias (c) were obtained for each participant in each condition, and in each task. These values were analyzed across all participants using analysis of variance (ANOVA)
Summary
Studies of face perception have used various tasks to explore how faces are processed as wholes or configurations. A face specific effect, the Thatcher illusion (Thompson, 1980; Bartlett and Searcy, 1993), is often used to mark the presence of configural processing (Maurer et al, 2002; Donnelly and Hadwin, 2003). The aim of the current research was to investigate three face processing tasks using quantitative methods that address formal definitions of configurality. Two of these tasks are analogues of composite face and Thatcher illusion tasks. The third is a task manipulating size, which is not related to any standard face processing task but does belong to the family of generic manipulations made when comparing faces to probe faces
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