Whyt faces

Thursday, April 22, by Amanda Bishop. At a time when many of the faces we encounter are either covered by masks or seen only on a computer screen, a Brock event will shed light on how people see others in their daily lives, and why it matters. After Mondloch provides a broad overview of face perception research, Matthews will talk about her research into how young children recognize new faces, a skill that can affect their social interactions.

Understanding how this ability changes across the lifespan is critical. Thierry and Twele will speak about their work on how strongly first impressions can affect behaviour toward children and older adults. Mondloch says their studies may surprise the audience, as they show just how much of an impact first impressions can have on behaviour. The stimuli were presented in a sequential matching-to-sample SMTS format using a computerized joystick-testing apparatus.

Subjects performed better on upright than inverted stimuli in all classes. Performance was significantly better on upright than inverted presentations of chimpanzee and human faces but not on capuchin monkey faces or automobiles. These data support previous studies in humans that suggest the inversion effect occurs for stimuli for which subjects have developed an expertise.

The experiments also attempt to isolate the source of the inversion effect. In one experiment, use of stimuli landscapes in which spatial relations among elements are potentially important distinguishing features is shown not to guarantee a large inversion effect.

Two additional experiments show that for dog experts sufficiently knowledgeable to individuate dogs of the same breed, memory for photographs of dogs of that breed is as disrupted by inversion as is face recognition. A final experiment indicates that the effect of orientation on memory for faces does not depend on inability to identify single features of these stimuli upside down.