Variants of independence in the perception of facial identity and expression.

Abstract

A prominent theory in the face perception literature--the parallel-route hypothesis (Bruce & Young, 1986)--assumes a dedicated channel for the processing of identity that is separate and independent from the channel(s) in which nonidentity information is processed (e.g., expression, eye gaze). The current work subjected this assumption to experimental tests from the perspective of three characterizations of independence and separability: Garner's speeded classification task (Garner, 1974), general recognition theory (Ashby & Townsend, 1986), and systems factorial technology (Townsend & Nozawa, 1995). The goals of the study were to (a) provide converging evidence on validity of the parallel-route hypothesis, and (b) understand the relationships between various definitions of independence and separability. The results of the current work demonstrated that identity and expression are not completely independent, using data from all three perspectives. Consequently, a modification of the central assumption of the parallel-route hypothesis is required. In addition, the intricate but orderly relationships between various types of separability and independence have implications for theories of perceptual independence.

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

“…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.…”

“…The many possible definitions and measures of independence have been investigated by both experimentally and theoretically inclined researchers (Ashby & Townsend, 1986;Fitousi & Wenger, 2013;Fitousi, 2013;Garner, 1974;Rumelhart & McClelland, 1981;Miller, 1982;Massaro & Friedman, 1990;Movellan & McClelland, 2001;Townsend & Ashby, 1983;Mordkoff & Yantis, 1991). A fundamental distinction has been made between formal characterization of independence in rate (Fifić & Townsend, 2010;Fific et al, 2008;Teodorescu & Usher, 2013;Logan et al, 2014;Townsend & Nozawa, 1995;Townsend & Wenger, 2004;Fific et al, 2010) and independence in information (Ashby & Townsend, 1986;Garner & Morton, 1969;Fitousi & Wenger, 2013;Fitousi, 2013;Kadlec & Townsend, 1992). Although, recently formalized accounts have been developed that can deal with both types of dependence simultaneously (Townsend & Altieri, 2012).…”

“…It was designed to assess perceptual independence between any pair of dimensions (e.g., color and shape). The Garner paradigm (for a review, see Algom & Fitousi, 2014) has been applied extensively to many pairs of facial dimensions such as: identity and expression (Etcoff, 1984;Fitousi & Wenger, 2013;Ganel & Goshen-Gottstein, 2004), identity and speech information (Schweinberger et al, 1999;Schweinberger & Soukup, 1998), identity and gender (Gal & Bruce, 2002), configural and holistic dimensions (Amishav & Kimchi, 2010), and contours inside and outside of facial context (Pomerantz et al, 2003).…”

“…The notion of independence (or its lack thereof) is central to research on holistic processing of faces. However, many studies do not provide a clear definition of independence (Garner & Morton, 1969;Fitousi & Wenger, 2013;Fitousi, 2013;Ashby & Townsend, 1986;Maddox, 1992). The recent debate over the "correct" assay for measuring the composite face effect (Richler & Gauthier, 2014;Rossion, 2013) attests to this confusion.…”

“…Various operational and theoretical tests of independence were used in the current study. The main goal has been to provide converging operations on the notion of holistic processing with this class of stimuli (Fitousi & Wenger, 2013;Fitousi, 2013;2014;Garner et al, 1956). …”