Abstract
Previous studies have found that opponent after-effects for faces transfer partially across a three-dimensional viewpoint change (Jeffrey et al., 2006; Jiang et al., 2006). More recently, Jiang et al. (in press) show that the magnitude of adaptation transfer increases with the familiarity of the face. Here, we examined the transferability of face identity after-effects across illumination change (Exp. 1) and assessed the effects of familiarity on adaptation transfer (Exp. 2). Illumination and viewpoint changes are similar because both involve a transformation that depends on the 3D structure of an object.
In Experiment 1, participants identified anti-caricatures following adaptation to an anti-face with identical (consistent) or different (inconsistent) illumination. The consistent illumination condition produced stronger adaptation effects than the inconsistent illumination condition, indicating a partial transfer of adaptation effects across illumination change.
The purpose of Experiment 2 was to assess the effects of familiarity with varying viewpoints of a face on the transferability of adaptation across changes in illumination. Participants were familiarized with the faces in a learning session. In the single-view 4-presentation condition, participants saw each familiarization face 4 times from a 22.5° rotated view. In the single-view 16-presentation condition, participants saw each face 16 times from a 22.5° rotated view. In the multiple-view 16-presentation condition, participants saw each face 8 times from the frontal view and 8 times from the 45° rotated view. We found that high levels of familiarity, developed from 16 presentations of a single view, improved the strength of adaptation effects in the consistent, but not the inconsistent illumination condition. However, familiarization with multiple-views had no effect on the strength of adaptation in either illumination condition. These results have implications for understanding how view-invariant face representations are developed through experience.