title: Silhouetted face profiles: a new methodology for face perception research.
abstract: We present a new methodology for constructing face stimuli for psychological experiments based on silhouetted face profiles. Face silhouettes carry a number of theoretical and methodological advantages compared to more complex face stimuli and lend themselves to a simple yet powerful parameterization. In five behavioral studies, we show that face silhouettes are processed like regular face stimuli: They provide enough information for accurate gender judgments (Study 1), age estimations (Study 2), and reliable and cross-valid attractiveness ratings (Study 3). Furthermore, face silhouettes elicit an inversion effect (Study 4) and allow for remarkably accurate cross-identification with front-view photographs (Study 5). We then describe a shape-based parameterization that relies on a small set of landmark points and show that face silhouettes can be effectively represented in a 20-dimensional "silhouette face space" (Study 6). We show that in this physical space, distance from the center of the space corresponds to perceived distinctiveness (Study 7), confirming a key axiom in the formulation of the face space model. Finally, we discuss straightforward applications of the face silhouette methodology and address some limitations.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. ndaviden@psych.stanford.edu
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Davidenko
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004954:Esthetics; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011601:Psychophysics / Q000379:methods*; D012106:Research; D014796:Visual Perception