A sideways look at configural encoding: two different effects of face rotation.

Full Abstract

Inversion has a disproportionate disruptive effect on the recognition of faces. This may be due to the disruption of holistic or configural encoding employed to recognise upright faces. The paradigm developed by Tanaka and Farah (1993 Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Section A 46 225-246) was used to investigate the effect of 90 degrees (or orthogonal) rotation on configural encoding. Faces learnt in the orthogonal condition were not recognised as well as upright faces, but a whole-face advantage was found in both cases. This whole-face advantage did not occur for inverted faces. It appears that 90 degrees rotation affects recognition but not specifically configural encoding. It is concluded that rotating a face can have at least two different effects on face processing depending on the range of rotation. Implications for the nature of facial dimensions and the expertise account of the inversion effect are considered.

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Author information

Author/s: Lewis, Michael B (MB); Glenister, Thomas E (TE);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, Cardiff University, PO Box 901, Cardiff CF10 3YG, UK. LewisMB(-atsign-)Cardiff.ac.uk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Perception (Perception), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-; vol 32 (issue 1) : pp 7-14

Dates: Created 2003/03/04; Completed 2003/04/29; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12613782, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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