title: The composite-face effect survives asymmetric face distortions.
abstract: In two experiments, we investigated whether adults use holistic processing even for faces that are grossly distorted because their eyes have been moved asymmetrically to violate the common layout of a face (distorting its first-order relations). To this end we used a compelling demonstration that faces are processed as wholes, the composite-face effect. Specifically, adults judged the similarity of sequentially presented top halves of normal (original condition) and distorted faces with one eye (one-eye condition) or two eyes (two-eyes condition) shifted up by an abnormal amount. Trials were either blocked by type of distortion (experiment 1) or intermixed within the experiment (experiment 2). In both experiments, participants demonstrated a composite-face effect of the same magnitude in the three conditions, a pattern suggesting that they processed holistically even faces whose first-order relations were violated.
authors.affiliation: Visual Development Lab, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada. adelaide.deheering@uclouvain.be
authors.forename: Adélaïde
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Heering
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wallis
authors.forename: Daphne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maurer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D015348:Vision, Binocular; D015349:Vision, Monocular; D055815:Young Adult