Face identification in the near-absence of focal attention.
In contrast to artificial geometric shapes, natural scenes and face-gender can be processed even when spatial attention is not fully available. In this study, we investigate whether a finer discrimination, at the level of the individual, is possible in the near-absence of focal attention. Using the paradigm, subjects performed face identification on faces of celebrities and relatively unfamiliar individuals, along with a task that is known to engage spatial attention. We find that face-identification performance is only modestly impaired under dual-task conditions. These results suggest that the visual system is well able to make complex judgments of natural stimuli, even when attention is not fully available.
Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. lreddy@klab.caltech.edu
Leila
L
Reddy
Lavanya
L
Reddy
Christof
C
Koch
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005145:Face; D005197:Famous Persons; D006801:Humans; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D021641:Recognition, Psychology