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Inversion and configuration of faces

J C Bartlett¹, J Searcy

¹Program in Human Development and Communication Sciences, University of Texas, Dallas.

Cognitive Psychology

|July 1, 1993

Summary

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The Thatcher illusion shows that inverting facial features like eyes and mouths makes faces appear grotesque upright, but not upside-down. This effect highlights how our brains process facial information differently based on orientation.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Visual Perception
Human Face Recognition

Background:

The Thatcher illusion describes how inverting facial features (eyes, mouth) creates a grotesque appearance when the face is upright, but this effect diminishes when the face is inverted.
Previous research indicates that facial inversion impacts the perception of facial features and expressions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the impact of facial inversion on the perception of grotesqueness and similarity in "Thatcherized" faces, spatially distorted faces, and faces with grotesque expressions.
To explore whether similarity judgments for upright and inverted faces rely on different processing mechanisms (holistic vs. component-based).

Main Methods:

Three studies were conducted using digitally manipulated faces: "Thatcherized" (inverted eyes/mouths), spatially distorted (moved eyes/mouths), and grotesque expression faces.

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Participants rated the grotesqueness and similarity of face pairs under upright and inverted conditions.

Response latencies were measured in a task requiring attention to facial components.

Main Results:

Inversion reduced perceived grotesqueness for "Thatcherized" and spatially distorted faces, but not for grotesque expression faces.
Inverted "Thatcherized" and distorted faces were judged as more similar to normal faces compared to their upright counterparts.
Similarity ratings for inverted faces correlated with response latencies to facial components, unlike upright faces.

Conclusions:

The Thatcher illusion demonstrates that facial inversion disrupts the holistic processing of facial information.
Perception of inverted faces relies more on component-based processing, while upright faces are processed holistically.
These findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms of human face recognition and the impact of orientation.