The roles of visual expertise and visual input in the face inversion effect: behavioral and neurocomputational evidence.
Research has shown that inverting faces significantly disrupts the processing of configural information, leading to a face inversion effect. We recently used a contextual priming technique to show that the presence or absence of the face inversion effect can be determined via the top-down activation of face versus non-face processing systems [Ge, L., Wang, Z., McCleery, J., & Lee, K. (2006). Activation of face expertise and the inversion effect. Psychological Science, 17(1), 12-16]. In the current study, we replicate these findings using the same technique but under different conditions. We then extend these findings through the application of a neural network model of face and Chinese character expertise systems. Results provide support for the hypothesis that a specialized face expertise system develops through extensive training of the visual system with upright faces, and that top-down mechanisms are capable of influencing when this face expertise system is engaged.
McCleery
Joseph P
JP
University of California, San Diego, Department of Psychology, 9500 Gilman Drive, Mail Code 0109, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, United States.
Zhang
Lingyun
L
Ge
Liezhong
L
Wang
Zhe
Z
Christiansen
Eric M
EM
Lee
Kang
K
Cottrell
Garrison W
GW
D000328:Adult; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics