The Influence Of Facial Region And Yaw Rotation On Face Holistic Processing

Holistic processing is a unique mechanism for face recognition,which enables people to perceive the complex features of faces at the same time,so as to distinguish different faces quickly and accurately.How does the complex and diverse face information participate in the holistic processing? Previous studies have found that different face regions play different roles in the overall processing of perception.The upper half of the face contributes more to the holistic processing than the lower half.In order to verify this advantage and further consider the effect of yaw rotation,two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of face region and yaw rotation on holistic processing during perception and memory.Study 1 focuses on the role of different regions of yaw rotated stereoscopic faces in global processing in perceptual representation.This study uses a part/whole paradigm,including experiment 1 and Experiment 2.In experiment 1,27 subjects completed part/whole tasks from a positive perspective;In experiment 2,24 subjects completed a part/whole task after frontal and yaw rotation.The results showed that:(1)the degree of holistic processing was strongest in eyes recognition,slightly weaker in mouth recognition,while the background of faces disturbed nose recognition.(2)The holistic processing of eyes and mouth is not affected by yaw rotation.But recognition of the frontal nose was more disturbed by the background of the face than it was by the yaw rotation.Study 2 focuses on the role of different regions of yaw rotated stereoscopic faces in the holistic processing of memory representations.In this study,masking stimuli were added and natural differences in the number of different components were controlled for using a part/whole paradigm,including experiment 3 and experiment 4.In experiment 3,a total of 21 subjects were recruited to complete the part/whole task after adding visual masking.In experiment 4,a total of 21 subjects were recruited to complete a part/whole task that further manipulated the masking duration and controlled the number of components.The results showed that:(1)the advantages of the eyes in the holistic processing still exist and are not affected by the number of parts.(2)The increase of masking time will make it more difficult to identify all features,but will not affect the holistic processing.To sum up,this study believes that the face in perception and memory stage is a holistic representation centered on the eyes,while the nose is independently represented in a characteristic way.