An examination of the processing capacity of features in the Thatcher illusion

Donnelly, Nick; Cornes, Katherine; Menneer, Tamaryn

doi:10.3758/s13414-012-0330-z

Cited by 28 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 35 publications

(56 reference statements)

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“…The majority of the composite face studies (Young et al, 1987) belong in that class. In contrast, theoretical definitions of holistic processing, dating at least to O'Toole, Wenger, and Townsend, (2001) include formal, computational, and mathematical models (Wenger & Townsend, 2001a;2001b;Copeland & Wenger, 2006;Cornes et al, 2011;Mestry et al, 2012;Mestry et al, 2014;Donnelly et al, 2012;Fifić & Townsend, 2010;O'Toole et al, 2001;Wenger & Ingvalson, 2002;Fitousi & Wenger, 2013;Fitousi, 2013). These accounts avoid circularity and are open to falsification because they rely on explicit and well-defined processing models of independence.…”

Section: Facial Holism: Operational Versus Theoretical Accountsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Operational studies often support the notion of facial holism whereas quantitative computational models are much less supportive. Studies from the latter tradition have shown that facial features can stand the strong tests of: statistical independence (Ellison & Massaro, 1997;Gold et al, 2012;Loftus et al, 2004;Macho & Leder, 1998), geometrical independence (Sergent, 1984;Tversky & Krantz, 1969), independence in processing rate (Bradshaw & Wallace, 1971;Wenger & Townsend, 2006;Donnelly et al, 2012), and perceptual independence (Wenger & Ingvalson, 2002, but see, Mestry et al, 2012).…”

Section: Facial Holism: Operational Versus Theoretical Accountsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Experiment 2, the same set of faces were subjected to tests of workload capacity and independence within the redundant target design (Miller, 1982). In Experiment 3, the redundant target was conjoined with "same-different" composite face task (Hole, 1994;Ingvalson & Wenger, 2005;Donnelly et al, 2012), which permitted testing with a large number of composite faces. Table 1 presents a summary of the hypotheses pertinent to the processing of these composite faces.…”

Section: Summary and Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Composite faces are not processed holistically: evidence from the Garner and redundant target paradigms

Fitousi

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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Composite faces fuse the top half of one face with the bottom half of another. These stimuli inflict a strong illusion of a novel face on their viewers, and are often considered to be processed holistically. The current study challenges this holistic view. Here I present provocative evidence from various classic attention paradigms such as the Garner (1974) and the redundant target (Miller, Cognitive Psychology, 14, 247-279, 1982; Townsend & Nozawa, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 39, 321-359, 1995) tasks showing that face parts are perceived and processed in an analytic rather than holistic fashion. In Experiment 1, composite faces failed to exhibit Garner interference, indicating perfect selective attention to the constituent parts. In Experiments 2 and 3, composite faces failed to exhibit super-capacity with same-identity composites, demonstrating limited or unlimited capacity. This pattern is consistent with analytic perception. Taken together, the results cast serious doubts on the validity of the holistic processing approach. In many respects, the study proposes disillusionment from the composite face illusion. In addition, the study highlights the importance of converging operations, model testability, and individual differences in the study of faces.

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Section: Facial Holism: Operational Versus Theoretical Accountsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Facial Holism: Operational Versus Theoretical Accountsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Summary and Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Composite faces are not processed holistically: evidence from the Garner and redundant target paradigms

Fitousi

2015

Atten Percept Psychophys

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“…However, a study of the relationships among visual processing features, age and familiarity in the one project, could, we hoped, add new information and understanding of how the decline occurs and could lead to new procedures that help reduce the decline and its effects. the face, the face looks grotesque due to the inversion of the features (cf., Donnelly et al, 2012;Valentine, 1988). However, if the face is inverted and the features are also inverted or "Thatcherised" (with eyes and mouth correctly oriented in relation to the viewer), the face is commonly seen as normal (that is, is seen -wrongly-as being the face of the individual as though there were no featural distortion).…”

Section: Assessment Of Visual Processing: the Thatcher Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These earlier researchers, beginning with Thompson (1980), used normal and "Thatcherised" images (faces with distorted elements) mostly images of celebrity faces (e.g., Julia Roberts's face), but none had combined both in the one study to our knowledge (see also Utz & Carbon, 2016). The faces are usually presented inverted or upright in conjunction with feature distortions (e.g., Bartlett & Searcy, 1993;Carbon & Leder, 2005;Donnelly, Cornes, & Menneer, 2012;Donnelly et al, 2011;Milivojevic, Clapp, Johnson, & Croballis, 2003;Rakover, 1999;Tanaka, Kaiser, Hagen, & Pearce, 2014;Valentine, 1988;Xu & Tanaka, 2013).…”

Section: Assessment: the Thatcher Illusion-our Study's Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facial Recognition and Visual Processing as We Age: Using the Thatcher Illusion with Famous and Non-Famous Faces

Hicks¹,

Alexander²,

Bahr³

2017

IJPS

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This paper reports a study examining preferred visual processes in recognition of facial features in older vs younger age groups, using Thatcherised images of famous and non-famous people in the one study. The aims were to determine whether decline in visual system processing occurs increasingly as we grow older, and whether there is less decline in recognition of famous (or familiar) faces. Three groups (younger, middle-old and older) made up the sample of 73 people (aged 19-82 years). Visual decline in face recognition across the age groups was assessed based on the Thatcher illusion-using four famous and four non-famous faces either with normal features or with distorted features. The faces were presented one at a time on computer screen, and participants were asked to judge whether the face was distorted (eyes and/or mouth not aligned in relation to the face); in addition, time taken to decision (latency) was also measured. Decline was found in visual processing such that older individuals gave limited attention to facial details (processing faces holistically, with detail errors) and they took longer to decide. Whether the faces were famous or not did not have significant effects on the decisions and there was no interaction with age, though famous faces were given longer attention. Our visual system processes decline as we age in that we give less attention to details and more to holistic processing and so make more errors in recognition. Implications for treatment or amelioration of the effects are discussed.

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Uncovering Mental Architecture and Related Mechanisms in Elementary Human Perception, Cognition, and Action

Townsend

Wenger

Houpt

2018

Stevens' Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience

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This chapter is a tutorial on and review of a theory‐driven, quantitative approach to studying human information processing systems. Key properties in such systems comprise mental architecture, workload capacity, decisional stopping rules, and several varieties of independence, among others. We outline the early history of such interests, which began in the 19th century and then were reopened in the 1960s. We point out the hazards due to the frequent ability of even mathematically specified models to mimic each other's experimental predictions. Next, we show how the deepest properties of distinct psychological principles can, through what we term “meta‐theory,” be engaged to prove powerful theorems regarding model distinctions and transferred to incisive experimental designs that avoid the dilemma of model mimicry. This meta‐theory and its associated experimental designs have been implemented to address a wide variety of theoretical and empirical questions regarding attention, perception, psychophysics, memory processes, decision making, and categorization. This range of implementations—running from basic science to applied arenas such as clinical pathologies and human factors research—underscores the generality and potency of this approach.

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An examination of the processing capacity of features in the Thatcher illusion

Cited by 28 publications

References 35 publications

Composite faces are not processed holistically: evidence from the Garner and redundant target paradigms

Composite faces are not processed holistically: evidence from the Garner and redundant target paradigms

Facial Recognition and Visual Processing as We Age: Using the Thatcher Illusion with Famous and Non-Famous Faces

Uncovering Mental Architecture and Related Mechanisms in Elementary Human Perception, Cognition, and Action

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