title: Interactions between concentric form-from-structure and face perception revealed by visual masking but not adaptation.
abstract: Findings from diverse subfields of vision research suggest a potential link between high-level aspects of face perception and concentric form-from-structure perception. To explore this relationship, typical adults performed two adaptation experiments and two masking experiments to test whether concentric, but not nonconcentric, Glass patterns (a type of form-from-structure stimulus) utilize a processing mechanism shared by face perception. For the adaptation experiments, subjects were presented with an adaptor for 5 or 20 s, prior to discriminating a target. In the masking experiments, subjects saw a mask, then a target, and then a second mask. Measures of discriminability and bias were derived and repeated measures analysis of variance tested for pattern-specific masking and adaptation effects. Results from Experiment 1 show no Glass pattern-specific effect of adaptation to faces; results from Experiment 2 show concentric Glass pattern masking, but not adaptation, may impair upright/inverted face discrimination; results from Experiment 3 show concentric and radial Glass pattern masking impaired subsequent upright/inverted face discrimination more than translational Glass pattern masking; and results from Experiment 4 show concentric and radial Glass pattern masking impaired subsequent face gender discrimination more than translational Glass pattern masking. Taken together, these findings demonstrate interactions between concentric form-from-structure and face processing, suggesting a possible common processing pathway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Feczko
authors.forename: Gordon L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Shulman
authors.forename: Steven E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Pruett
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Glass patterns; face perception; holistic processing; moire perception; visual adaptation; visual masking