Ratio Information Of Face Feature Spacing: Effect On Face Recognition And Its Processing Characteristics

A face includes configural information and feature information.Many studies have shown that the processing of face configural information has a great influence on face recognition.Face configural information includes first-order information(relative positions between features,for example,eyes above the nose,nose above the mouth)and second-order information(feature spacing,for example,distance of the two eyes).However,the definition of face second-order configural information are not clear.Some researchers believe that face second-order information refers to the feature spacing of faces,while other researchers believe that face second-order information is the relationship between face feature spacing.In order to avoiding the conceptual confusion,this paper defines the spacing of face features as "absolute information of face feature spacing" and the relationship of face feature spacing as "ratio information of face feature spacing".They are different on the properties,so their role in face recognition will also be different.What is the specific performance for the difference? In this paper,study 1 examined the role of these two kinds of information in face recognition.Study 2 examined the processing characteristics about ratio information of face features spacing.Study 1 focused on the role of absolute information of face feature spacing and ratio information of face feature spacing in face recognition.Experiment 1 adopted a perceptual delay matching paradigm.The aim to control the role of the absolute information of face feature spacing was achieved by changing the size of the learning face,and the configural information of the test face was changed to control the role of the ratio information of face feature spacing.Then their effect on face recognition were examined.On the basis of experiment 1,the processing level of the face feature information was further suppressed by increasing the ambiguity of the test face in Experiment 2.Then the specificity of the ratio information of face feature spacing was examined on face recognition.The results found that(1)ratio information of face feature spacing has a significant impact on face recognition performance;(2)face recognition performance is not affected by absolute information of face feature spacing;(3)ratio information of face feature spacing has specificity on face recognition.Study 2 focuses on the processing characteristics about ratio information of face feature spacing.In Experiment 3,an inverted face pattern and a delay matching task were used to examine the effect of inversion on the processing of the ratio information of face feature spacing.For controlling the processing level of the face feature information,experiment 4 manipulated the ambiguity of the test face,and then investigated the relationship between ratio information of face feature spacing and face feature information.Setting learning faces to different sizes,Experiment 5 also used a delay matching task to examine whether it would be affected by the actual size of the face when the perceiving ratio information of face feature spacing.The results show that:(1)Inversion has no significant effect on the effect of the ratio information of face feature spacing;(2)Face feature information has no significant effect on the processing of the ratio information of face feature spacing;(3)For the same face,although it has some images with different size,the perception of ratio information of face feature spacing always don't have significant difference for these images.In summary,this paper had some important findings as follows:(1)The ratio information of face feature spacing has a significant effect on face recognition performance and has specificity in face recognition;(2)Face feature information processing level has a significant impact on face recognition performance,which is consistent with the theory that face feature information has a great influence on face recognition.(3)Face feature information processing level has no obvious influence on the processing of ratio information of face feature spacing,so it supports the opinion which face configural information and face feature information process independent;(4)When perceiving ratio information of face feature spacing,the actual size of the face has little influence.