Abstract
To understand the impact of interattribute distances (IADs) in face recognition, we correlated the performance of 42 participants in the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) and in the Face Composite Task to their sensitivity to IADs, as indexed by three novel tasks. In the first task, participants needed to adjust the length of an horizontal line to match the interocular distance (IOD) of a briefly presented face (1000ms). Face stimuli were shown in various sizes. White positional noise with constant energy was added independently to the xy-coordinates of the left eye, and the y-coordinates of the nose, the mouth and the left brow. The right eye and brow were kept symmetrical to the left ones. Performance was measured as the correlation between the adjusted length and the veridical IOD. In the two other tasks, two face stimuli were shown successively for 500ms, and participants had to decide if they were identical or different. The stimuli were created the same way as in the first task, except that in 50% of the trials, both faces had identical IOD (second task) or identical IADs (third task). The level of noise was adjusted to maintain an accuracy of 75% and was taken as a index of performance. The third task was significantly correlated with the CFMT (r=-.4, p< 0.01), suggesting that it reflects global visual processing capabilities in face identification. However, no significant correlation was found between our three tasks and the five indexes of the Composite Face Effect (CFE; DeGutis, et al, 2013; Konar et al., 2010; Richler, et al. 2011). This suggests that global sensitivity to IADs and the capacity to use IOD while ignoring other IADs, are not associated with holistic face processing. Specific links between the CFE and facial scaling will be tested with models on the positional noise.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015