Schneider Tobias Matthias, Carbon Claus-Christian
Department of General Psychology and Methodology, University of Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany.
Research Group EPÆG (Ergonomics, Psychological Æsthetics, Gestalt), Bamberg, Germany.
Iperception. 2021 Oct 29;12(5):20416695211054105. doi: 10.1177/20416695211054105. eCollection 2021 Sep-Oct.
Faces undergo massive changes over time and life events. We need a mental representation which is flexible enough to cope with the existing visual varieties, but which is also stable enough to be the basis for valid recognition. Two main theoretical frameworks exist to describe facial representations: prototype models assuming one central item comprising all visual experiences of a face, and exemplar models assuming single representations of each visual experience of a face. We introduce a much more ecological valid model dealing with episodic prototypes (the Episodic Prototypes Model-EPM), where faces are represented by a low number of prototypes that refer to specific Episodes of Life (EoL, e.g., early adulthood, mature age) during which the facial appearance shows only moderate variation. Such an episodic view of mental representation allows for efficient storage, as the number of needed prototypes is relatively low, and it allows for the needed variation within a prototype that keeps the everyday and steadily ongoing changes across a certain period of time. Studies 1-3 provide evidence that facial representations are highly dependent on temporal aspects which is in accord with EoL, and that individual learning history generates the structure and content of respective prototypes. In Study 4, we used implicit measures (RT) in a face verification task to investigate the postulated power of the EPM. We could demonstrate that episodic prototypes clearly outperformed visual depictions of exhaustive prototypes, supporting the general idea of our approach.
随着时间的推移和生活事件的发生，面部会经历巨大的变化。我们需要一种心理表征，它既要足够灵活以应对现有的视觉多样性，又要足够稳定以成为有效识别的基础。存在两种主要的理论框架来描述面部表征：原型模型假设一个包含面部所有视觉体验的中心项目，以及范例模型假设面部每次视觉体验的单一表征。我们引入了一种更具生态效度的模型来处理情景原型（情景原型模型-EPM），其中面部由少量原型表示，这些原型指的是生命特定阶段（例如成年早期、成熟年龄），在此期间面部外观仅表现出适度变化。这种心理表征的情景观点允许高效存储，因为所需原型的数量相对较少，并且它允许在原型内进行所需的变化，以保持在特定时间段内日常且持续不断的变化。研究1-3提供了证据，表明面部表征高度依赖于与生命特定阶段相符的时间方面，并且个人学习历史生成了各个原型的结构和内容。在研究4中，我们在面部验证任务中使用了隐式测量（反应时间）来研究EPM的假设效力。我们能够证明情景原型明显优于详尽原型的视觉描绘，支持了我们方法的总体思路。
