Identification of Familiar and Unfamiliar Faces from Internal and External Features: Some Implications for Theories of Face Recognition

Perception ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hadyn D Ellis ◽  
John W Shepherd ◽  
Graham M Davies
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Recognition Test ◽  
Internal Representation ◽  
Famous People ◽  
Feature Saliency ◽  
Face Perception And Recognition ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

Three experiments are reported in which recognition of faces from whole faces or internal or external features was compared. In the first experiment, where the faces were of famous people, an advantage was found for identification from internal features. In the second experiment involving unfamiliar faces, however, no difference was found in recognition rates when subjects were given the internal or the external features. In a third experiment famous faces were presented and mixed with other famous faces for a recognition test. As in experiment 1, better recognition occurred from internal as compared with external features. It is argued that the internal representation for familiar faces may be qualitatively different from that for faces seen just once. In particular some advantage in feature saliency may accrue to the internal or ‘expressive’ features of familiar faces. The implications of these results are considered in relation to general theories of face perception and recognition.

scholarly journals Recognising Familiar Faces Out of Context

Perception ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-177
Author(s):  
Sarah Laurence ◽  
Jordyn Eyre ◽  
Ailsa Strathie
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Recognition Test ◽  
Familiar Face

Expertise in familiar face recognition has been well-documented in several studies. Here, we examined the role of context using a surprise lecturer recognition test. Across two experiments, we found few students recognised their lecturer when they were unexpected, but accuracy was higher when the lecturer was preceded by a prompt. Our findings suggest that familiar face recognition can be poor in unexpected contexts.

scholarly journals The neural representation of personally familiar and unfamiliar faces in the distributed system for face perception

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Visconti di Oleggio Castello ◽  
Yaroslav O. Halchenko ◽  
J. Swaroop Guntupalli ◽  
Jason D. Gors ◽  
M. Ida Gobbini
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Distributed System ◽  
Neural Representation ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

scholarly journals Characterizing developmental prosopagnosia beyond face perception: Impaired recollection but intact familiarity recognition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Stumps ◽  
Elyana Saad ◽  
David Rothlein ◽  
Mieke Verfaellie ◽  
Joseph DeGutis
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Roc Analysis ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
High Confidence ◽  
Perceptual Deficit ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Confidence Ratings

Converging lines of research suggests that many developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) have impairments beyond face perception, but currently no framework exists to characterize these impaired mechanisms. One potential extra-perceptual deficit is that DPs encode/retrieve faces in a distinct manner from controls that does not sufficiently support individuation. To test this possibility, 30 DPs and 30 matched controls performed an old/new face recognition task while providing confidence ratings, to which a model-based ROC analysis was applied. DPs had significantly reduced recollection compared to controls, driven by fewer ‘high-confidence target’ responses, but intact familiarity. Recollection and face perception ability uniquely predicted objective and subjective prosopagnosia symptoms, together explaining 51% and 56% of the variance, respectively. These results suggest that a specific deficit in face recollection in DP may represent a core aspect of the difficulty in confidently identifying an individual by their face.

scholarly journals Face Perception Deficits in Developmental Prosopagnosia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ella Macaskill
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Test Performance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Memory Deficits ◽  
Face Memory ◽  
The Face ◽  
Component Processes ◽  
Severe Difficulty ◽  
Scale Experiment

<p>Face recognition is a fundamental cognitive function that is essential for social interaction – yet not everyone has it. Developmental prosopagnosia is a lifelong condition in which people have severe difficulty recognising faces but have normal intellect and no brain damage. Despite much research, the component processes of face recognition that are impaired in developmental prosopagnosia are not well understood. Two core processes are face perception, being the formation of visual representations of a currently seen face, and face memory, being the storage, maintenance, and retrieval of those representations. Most studies of developmental prosopagnosia focus on face memory deficits, but a few recent studies indicate that face perception deficits might also be important. Characterising face perception in developmental prosopagnosia is crucial for a better understanding of the condition. In this thesis, I addressed this issue in a large-scale experiment with 108 developmental prosopagnosics and 136 matched controls. I assessed face perception abilities with multiple measures and ran a broad range of analyses to establish the severity, scope, and nature of face perception deficits in developmental prosopagnosia. Three major results stand out. First, face perception deficits in developmental prosopagnosia were severe, and could be comparable in size to face memory deficits. Second, the face perception deficits were widespread, affecting the whole sample rather than a subset of individuals. Third, the deficits were mainly driven by impairments to mechanisms specialised for processing upright faces. Further analyses revealed several other features of the deficits, including the use of atypical and inconsistent strategies for perceiving faces, difficulties matching the same face across different pictures, equivalent impact of lighting and viewpoint variations in face images, and atypical perceptual and non-perceptual components of test performance. Overall, my thesis shows that face perception deficits are more central to developmental prosopagnosia than previously thought and motivates further research on the issue.</p>

Face Recognition Based on Higher Order Neural Network Group-Based Adaptive Tolerance Trees

2021 ◽  
pp. 498-536
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Face Recognition ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Box Model ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Translation Invariant ◽  
Network Research ◽  
Simple Models

Recent artificial higher order neural network research has focused on simple models, but such models have not been very successful in describing complex systems (such as face recognition). This chapter presents the artificial higher order neural network group-based adaptive tolerance (HONNGAT) tree model for translation-invariant face recognition. Moreover, face perception classification, detection of front faces with glasses and/or beards models of using HONNGAT trees are presented. The artificial higher order neural network group-based adaptive tolerance tree model is an open box model and can be used to describe complex systems.

Editorial: Face perception and recognition

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Ryusuke Kakigi ◽  
Masami K. Yamaguchi
Keyword(s):  
Face Perception ◽  
Face Perception And Recognition

scholarly journals Monocular Advantage for Face Perception Implicates Subcortical Mechanisms in Adult Humans

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 927-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shai Gabay ◽  
Adrian Nestor ◽  
Eva Dundas ◽  
Marlene Behrmann
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Face Perception ◽  
Sex Differentiation ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Subcortical Structures ◽  
Adaptive Process ◽  
Cortical Level ◽  
Adult Humans ◽  
Human Adults ◽  
Robust Evidence

The ability to recognize faces accurately and rapidly is an evolutionarily adaptive process. Most studies examining the neural correlates of face perception in adult humans have focused on a distributed cortical network of face-selective regions. There is, however, robust evidence from phylogenetic and ontogenetic studies that implicates subcortical structures, and recently, some investigations in adult humans indicate subcortical correlates of face perception as well. The questions addressed here are whether low-level subcortical mechanisms for face perception (in the absence of changes in expression) are conserved in human adults, and if so, what is the nature of these subcortical representations. In a series of four experiments, we presented pairs of images to the same or different eyes. Participants' performance demonstrated that subcortical mechanisms, indexed by monocular portions of the visual system, play a functional role in face perception. These mechanisms are sensitive to face-like configurations and afford a coarse representation of a face, comprised of primarily low spatial frequency information, which suffices for matching faces but not for more complex aspects of face perception such as sex differentiation. Importantly, these subcortical mechanisms are not implicated in the perception of other visual stimuli, such as cars or letter strings. These findings suggest a conservation of phylogenetically and ontogenetically lower-order systems in adult human face perception. The involvement of subcortical structures in face recognition provokes a reconsideration of current theories of face perception, which are reliant on cortical level processing, inasmuch as it bolsters the cross-species continuity of the biological system for face recognition.

scholarly journals Configurational Factors in the Perception of Unfamiliar Faces

Perception ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham J Hole
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Face Inversion ◽  
Processing Mechanisms ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces ◽  
The Way

Young et al (1987) have demonstrated that the juxtaposition of top and bottom halves of different faces produces a powerful impression of a novel face. It is difficult to isolate perceptually either half of the ‘new’ face. Inversion of the stimulus, however, makes this task easier. Upright chimeric faces appear to evoke strong and automatic configurational processing mechanisms which interfere with selective piecemeal processing. In this paper three experiments are described in which a matching paradigm was used to show that Young et al's findings apply to unfamiliar as well as to familiar faces. The results highlight the way in which minor procedural differences may alter the way in which subjects perform face-recognition tasks.

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