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Related Experiment Videos

What is "special" about face perception?

M J Farah1, K D Wilson, M Drain

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6196, USA.

Psychological Review
|August 11, 1998
PubMed
Summary

Face recognition is special, processed holistically rather than by parts. New experiments show less part-based shape representation for faces, supporting holistic processing in human perception.

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Cognitive neuropsychology·2010

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Computer Vision

Background:

  • Face recognition is considered a specialized cognitive function.
  • Previous theories proposed different mechanisms for how faces are recognized.
  • The concept of holistic processing suggests faces are perceived as a whole, not individual parts.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To test the hypothesis that faces are recognized holistically.
  • To compare face perception with the perception of other objects (inverted faces, words, houses).
  • To investigate whether face representation differs in degree or kind from other object representations.

Main Methods:

  • Four new experiments on face perception were conducted.
  • Selective attention and masking paradigms were employed.
  • Perception of faces was compared with inverted faces, words, and houses.

Main Results:

  • Evidence suggests relatively less part-based shape representation for faces.
  • Holistic processing appears to be a key feature of face perception.
  • Converging evidence from machine vision and neurophysiology supports specialized face representation.

Conclusions:

  • Face recognition is distinct from other object recognition tasks.
  • Holistic processing is a significant aspect of how humans recognize faces.
  • Further research in neuropsychology can elucidate the unique nature of face representation.

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