Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences and the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva, 8410501, Israel.
Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva, 8410501, Israel.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2018 Aug;25(4):1351-1357. doi: 10.3758/s13423-017-1381-x.
It has long been argued that face processing requires disproportionate reliance on holistic processing (HP), relative to that required for nonface object recognition. Nevertheless, whether the holistic nature of face perception is achieved via a unique internal representation or by the employment of an automated attention mechanism is still debated. Previous studies had used the face inversion effect (FIE), a unique face-processing marker, or the face composite task, a gold standard paradigm measuring holistic processing, to examine the validity of these two different hypotheses, with some studies combining the two paradigms. However, the results of such studies remain inconclusive, particularly pertaining to the issue of the two proposed HP mechanisms-an internal representation as opposed to an automated attention mechanism. Here, using the complete composite paradigm design, we aimed to examine whether face rotation yields a nonlinear or a linear drop in HP, thus supporting an account that face processing is based either on an orientation-dependent internal representation or on automated attention. Our results reveal that even a relatively small perturbation in face orientation (30 deg away from upright) already causes a sharp decline in HP. These findings support the face internal representation hypothesis and the notion that the holistic processing of faces is highly orientation-specific.
长久以来，人们一直认为相较于非面部物体识别，面部处理需要更多地依赖整体处理（HP）。然而，面部知觉的整体性是通过独特的内部表示还是通过使用自动化注意机制来实现，这仍然存在争议。先前的研究使用面部反转效应（FIE），一种独特的面部处理标记，或面部复合任务，一种衡量整体处理的黄金标准范式，来检验这两种不同假设的有效性，有些研究将这两种范式结合起来。然而，这些研究的结果仍不确定，特别是关于两种拟议的 HP 机制的问题——内部表示与自动化注意机制相对。在这里，我们使用完整的复合范式设计，旨在检验面部旋转是否会导致 HP 的非线性或线性下降，从而支持面部处理基于定向依赖的内部表示或自动化注意的观点。我们的研究结果表明，即使是面部朝向的相对较小的扰动（偏离垂直 30 度）也会导致 HP 急剧下降。这些发现支持面部内部表示假说，即面部的整体处理具有高度的定向特异性。
