Facial inversion effects: Parts and whole relationship

Sam S. Rakover, Brosh Teucher

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

"Facial inversion effects" refers to the findings that recognition of inverted faces is less accurate than recognition of upright faces. We now report inversion effects for isolated facial features: forehead, eves nose mouth, and chin. This shows that configurational information extracted from a whole face (i.e., from spatial relationships among the facial features) is not necessary for obtaining the inversion effects. Other factors, such as "upright-orientation," mental rotation, and feature saliency account for the inversion effects both in a whole face and in its isolated features. We propose a simple formula that satisfactorily predicts the recognition of a whole face and the inversion effects for that face on the basis of its individual features.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)752-761
Number of pages10
JournalPerception and Psychophysics
Volume59
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1997

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Sensory Systems
  • General Psychology

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