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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues

Published on: June 3, 2013

Face familiarity, distinctiveness, and categorical perception.

Adriana Angeli¹, Jules Davidoff, Tim Valentine

¹Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)

|September 14, 2007

Summary

Categorical perception (CP) is limited to familiar categories. Unfamiliar faces are encoded for sorting but not as perceptual categories, challenging prior findings.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Perception Science
Face Recognition

Background:

Categorical perception (CP) is a phenomenon where stimuli are perceived as belonging to discrete categories rather than along a continuous dimension.
Previous research suggested CP applies to familiar categories, including face identity.
The precise nature and limitations of CP, especially for novel stimuli, remain under investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether categorical perception (CP) extends to unfamiliar face identities.
To determine if representations of novel faces possess the format of perceptual categories.
To explore potential artifacts that might mimic CP effects with unfamiliar faces.

Main Methods:

Four experiments were conducted using morphed face continua.

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Participants engaged in tasks assessing perception and recognition of novel face identities.

Analysis focused on whether equal physical steps in morph continua yielded unequal psychological responses.

Main Results:

No evidence for categorical perception (CP) of unfamiliar face identities was found.
Novel faces were encoded for immediate sorting but not in a categorical format.
Morphed continua with distinctive endpoints produced effects resembling CP, particularly in likeness judgments.

Conclusions:

Categorical perception (CP) appears restricted to familiar categories, including face identity.
The encoding of unfamiliar faces does not utilize perceptual category formats.
Methodological choices, such as endpoint selection in morph continua, can influence results and lead to differing interpretations of CP.