Face Perception

Question 1

What is the difference between sensation and perception?

Answer 1

Sensation: info about environment picked up by sensory receptors and transmitted to brain

Perception: interpretation by the brain of this input

Question 2

What is visual acuity?

Answer 2

The ability to look at things and look at fine grain detail

Question 3

When does visual acuity develop?

Answer 3

Poor at birth, rapid increase in first 6 months

Question 4

What does visual scanning look like at around 1-2 months old?

Answer 4

• 1 month: Focus on limited features of shapes, particularly outer edges
• Less than 2 months: Cannot track moving objects smoothly
• At 2 months: Start to focus on internal features

Question 5

Describe colour vision in newborns (at 1 and 4 months)

Answer 5

• Newborns can distinguish between white and red, but not other colours
• 1 month: Look longer at brighter, bold colours
• 4 months: Close to adult ability

Question 6

How do we test perceptual abilities?

Answer 6

• Preference tests
• Habituation tests
• Conditioning

Question 7

Explain the mechanism of preference tests

Answer 7

• You present two stimuli at the same time
• Measure how long infants look at each
• Does the infant look at one more than the other? Can they discriminate between stimuli?

Question 8

Explain the mechanism of habituation tests

Answer 8

• Habituation refers to the losing of interest due to repeated presentation of a certain stimuli
• You show an interesting stimulus repeatedly, until habituation occurs
• Change to a different stimulus; If the infant shows renewed interest and looks again, this shows dishabituation
• If so, the infant can tell the difference

Question 9

Explain the mechanism of conditioning

Answer 9

• Repeatedly reward target behaviour
• Infant becomes habituated to stimulus
• Stimulus is altered (If the target behaviour is not affected, infant treats 2 stimuli as the same; if target behaviour is affected, infant distinguishes between 2 stimuli)

Question 10

Why are faces useful?

Answer 10

We can tell many things from seeing faces:
- Species
- Sex
- Race
- Identity
- Mood/emotional state
- Intent/truthfulness

Question 11

Explain the ‘Nature vs Nurture’ in face perception

Answer 11

• Nature/Nativism: abilities from birth (innate, inborn)
• Nurture/Empiricism: acquire overtime through experience (learned)

Question 12

Explain the theoretical approach of ‘Are faces special?’

Answer 12

• Special perceptual process: organized at birth
• Perceive faces as they perceive other objects: becomes specialised after experience

Question 13

Explain Johnson and Morton’s (1991) 2 Process Model

Answer 13

• CONSPEC: Early system (subcortical structures) biases infants to orient towards faces
• CONLEARN: Later taken over by more mature system (visual cortex) and more precise recognition

Question 14

Other than face perception, what else can newborns do?

Answer 14

• Recognise identity of novel individuals
• Recognise eye-gaze
• Recognise expressions
• Prefer attractive faces
• Discriminate mother’s face

Question 15

Explain the Face Specific Perceptual Development Theory

Answer 15

• Ongoing development of face-specific perception mechanisms; Continue to develop into late child and adolescence
• Face perception gets better because of increased exposure/experience with faces

Question 16

Explain the General Cognitive Development Theory

Answer 16

• Face perception matures early (4-5 yo)
• Performance increases later as general cognitive mechanisms improve

Question 17

When does face perception mature?

Answer 17

• Early research suggested qualitative change later in childhood/adolescence
• More recent research suggests adult-like mechanisms might be in place much earlier (4-5yo; suggests that increase in face perception reflect development of other cogn abilities such as concentration, attention, memory)

Question 18

Explain the disproportionate inversion effect

Answer 18

• Face perception is more accurate when faces are upright
• The inversion has a larger effect for faces versus non-face objects

Question 19

Explain the holistic/configural processing of adult face perception

Answer 19

• Integration of info from all regions of face
• Code spacing between face and features

Question 20

Explain neurodivergent face perception in autism

Answer 20

Differences in:
- Recognising familiar people
- Remembering faces
- Interpreting eye-gaze and emotions

Question 21

Explain neurodivergent face perception in William’s Syndrome

Answer 21

• Processing unfamiliar faces atypically
• Prolonged face gaze

Question 22

Explain prosopagnosia

Answer 22

• Defined as ‘face blindness’
• Could be caused by:
  *Damage or abnormalities in right fusiform gyrus (stroke, brain injury)
  *Congenital prosopagnosia – from birth, appears to run in families
• Different degrees of severity (one might not even recognise their own face)

Question 23

Show evidence for face perception’s visual acuity (inner and outer features) through literature

Answer 23

Pascalis et al. (1995)
- Preference for mother’s face disappeared when outside of face and hairline masked
- Newborns use outer features to identify

Turati et al. (2006)
- Could use both outer and inner features

Question 24

What findings from Pascalis et al. (2002) supports the nativist view of face perception?

Answer 24

This study suggests that infants as young as a few days old show a preference for face-like stimuli, supporting the idea that there may be innate mechanisms or predispositions for face perception.

Question 25

What findings from Farroni et al. (2005) supports the nativist view of face perception?

Answer 25

This study investigates newborns’ ability to detect and respond to eye contact, suggesting that there may be an early, biologically driven sensitivity to faces.

Question 26

What findings from Quinn et al. (2002) supports the empiricist view of face perception?

Answer 26

• Infants show a preference for female faces.
• The researchers interpret this preference as potentially influenced by early exposure to female faces, either through maternal interactions, caregiver faces, or other social stimuli in the infants’ environment.

Question 27

Pascalis et al. (2011): Development of Face Processing

Answer 27

• Early competence in face-processing abilities
• Infants presenting a preference for face stimuli and facial discrimination using featural, configural, and holistic cues
• Evidences show that the early face-perception competence is later refined by general cognitive development and also face-specific.