Skin-color perception of morphed face images

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to verify the interconnection between the perception of face shape and skin color. The hypothesis of this study was that, if there is a relationship between face shape and skin-color perception, a change would be expected in skin-color perception based on the degree of similarity to a face. We conducted three experiments, designed to determine the ability to retrieve from memory the color of human-like faces with several degrees of morphing. The experiments were (i) test of memory for colors of scrambled faces, (ii) test of morphing limits, and (iii) test of further degrees of morphing and more chromatic variations, based on the information gathered from the first two experiments. The first experiment indicated that a lower degree of morphing would impact the final result. The second experiment was important to determine the appropriate degree of morphing, whereas the third experiment widened the range of chromatic staring points, thereby broadening the limits of the experiment. The color-matching results differed according to the completeness of the facial shape. We found that the presence of eyes on morphed images of faces induces the perception of faces. Moreover, it appeared that the starting chromatic point, if too distant from the original stimulus, increased the difficulty of the memory task. This study has shown the possibility of a relationship between skin color and face perception.