On Response Bias in the Face Congruency Effect for Internal and External Features

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Visual Perception

Background:

• The complete design (CD) by Cheung et al. (2008) measures selective attention failures in composite objects.
• Response bias analysis within the CD can reveal effects of experimental manipulations, stimuli, and observer attributes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if external features modulate perception of internal features using the context congruency paradigm.
• To examine the impact of face inversion on congruency effects and response bias.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the complete design (CD) with the context congruency paradigm.
• Tested a sample of 303 subjects on upright and inverted face stimuli.
• Analyzed congruency effects and response bias.

Main Results:

• A large congruency effect (Cohen's d = 1.78) was observed, attenuated by face inversion (d = 1.32).
• Congruency strongly modulated response bias, with more 'different' responses in incongruent trials (d = 0.79), also attenuated by inversion (d = 0.43).
• Identified two behavioral markers of holistic processing: performance advantage in congruent trials and a bias towards 'different' responses in incongruent trials.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest holistic processing in the context congruency paradigm, characterized by performance and bias effects.
• Face inversion quantitatively, but not qualitatively, altered these markers, indicating no change in the face processing mode.
• The results provide insights into the integration of external and internal features in face perception.