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Bidirectional Gender Face Aftereffects: Evidence Against Normative Facial Coding.
Sophie L Cronin1, Morgan L Spence1, Paul A Miller1
1Perception Laboratory, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, QLD, Australia.
Perception
|October 19, 2016
Summary
Facial gender perception is influenced by adaptation effects. Viewing one face can make subsequent faces appear more masculine or feminine, demonstrating a bidirectional effect in how we perceive gender.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Perception
Background:
- Facial appearance perception can be modulated by sensory adaptation.
- Previous research proposed unidirectional or bidirectional explanations for face gender aftereffects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the nature of face gender aftereffects.
- To determine if face gender perception shifts unidirectionally or bidirectionally after adaptation.
Main Methods:
- Participants were exposed to adaptor faces.
- Subsequent faces were presented and rated for perceived masculinity.
- Analysis focused on changes in ratings compared to baseline.
Main Results:
- Face gender aftereffects were found to be bidirectional.
- Faces rated as more masculine than adaptors appeared even more masculine.
- Faces rated as less masculine than adaptors appeared even less masculine.
Conclusions:
- Mental operations exaggerate differences between successive faces, impacting facial gender perception.
- This contradicts the idea of a simple recalibration of face perception based on environmental statistics.
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