Department of General Psychology and Methodology, University of Bamberg, Markusplatz 3, 96047, Bamberg, Germany.
Bamberg Graduate School of Affective and Cognitive Sciences (BaGrACS), University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
BMC Psychol. 2023 Apr 1;11(1):96. doi: 10.1186/s40359-023-01148-9.
Many Western people enjoy sunshine, and through the sun's stimulated increase in melanin, the skin tone or skin complexion will darken (and lighten again during winter). Although the initial salience of such a new look is remarkable - especially in the face - we seem to adapt to this new look relatively quickly. Research on face adaptation in general repeatedly showed that the inspection of manipulated versions of faces (so-called adaptor faces) leads to a change of the perception of subsequently presented faces. The present study investigates face adaptation to very natural changes in faces such as changes in complexion.
During the adaptation phase in the present study, participants saw faces with either strongly increased or decreased complexion. After a pause of 5 min, participants had to identify the veridical (non-manipulated) face out of two faces (a face slightly manipulated in complexion combined with the non-manipulated face) during a test phase.
Results show strong adaptation effects to decreased complexion intensities.
It seems that we are updating our facial representations in memory quite quickly (i.e., optimizing our processing through adaptation) and seem to sustain those new representations over a certain timespan (at least 5 min). Our results demonstrate that changes in complexion draw our attention for deeper analysis (at least with decreased complexion). However, it loses its informative quality quickly via fast and relatively sustainable adaptation.
许多西方人喜欢晒太阳，通过阳光刺激黑色素增加，肤色或肤色会变深（冬天又会变浅）。虽然这种新面貌的最初显著变化引人注目——尤其是在脸上——但我们似乎很快就能适应这种新面貌。一般来说，对面部适应的研究反复表明，对面部操纵版本（所谓的适应器面部）的检查会导致对面部随后呈现的感知变化。本研究调查了对面部肤色等非常自然变化的面部适应。
在本研究的适应阶段，参与者会看到肤色明显变深或变浅的面部。经过 5 分钟的停顿，参与者在测试阶段必须从两张脸（一张肤色稍微改变，另一张是非操纵脸）中识别出真实的（非操纵）脸。
结果显示出对肤色变浅强度的强烈适应效应。
看起来我们很快就在记忆中更新了我们的面部代表（即通过适应优化我们的处理），并且似乎在一定时间内维持这些新的代表（至少 5 分钟）。我们的研究结果表明，肤色的变化会引起我们的注意进行更深入的分析（至少对于肤色变浅的情况）。然而，它通过快速且相对可持续的适应很快失去其信息质量。
