Abstract
In two separate studies we address the nature of the development of expertise using two neuro-recording technologies, EEG and fMRI, which provides converging evidence for how expertise affects visual processing. Using the same tasks in both methodologies, we present both upright and inverted fingerprints and faces to latent print examiners and novices. Additionally we manipulate the stimuli by presenting them in either phase-shifted noise or no noise. In prior work, Busey and Vanderkolk (2005) showed that fingerprint experts show similar EEG latency patterns between upright and inverted faces and fingerprints. In addition, our previous research has also shown that the addition of noise to faces leads to an interaction between inversion and noise. Integrating these two paradigms leads to the presumption that the effects with noise and faces could extend to fingerprints in experts. In addition, findings in the literature showing similar patterns between faces and items of expertise also suggest the possibility for an interaction between expertise and stimulus type. In our particular experiment, electrophysiological results show a scale-invariant interaction between noise and inversion for faces at the N170: the amplitude ordering between upright and inverted faces reverses when faces are presented in noise. This same interaction is found for fingerprints, but only for latent print examiners. This suggests processing differences between experts and novices for this stimulus class. To provide an anatomical interpretation of this data, we discuss the similarities and differences between the fMRI and EEG data. Together the two sets of studies demonstrate the conditions in which noise and inversion interact and suggests that the development of expertise may involve external noise exclusion.
Busey, T.A., & Vanderkolk, J.R. (2005). Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for configural processing in fingerprint experts. Vision Research, 45, 431-488.