title: From face processing to face recognition: Comparing three different processing levels.
abstract: Verifying that a face is from a target person (e.g. finding someone in the crowd) is a critical ability of the human face processing system. Yet how fast this can be performed is unknown. The 'entry-level shift due to expertise' hypothesis suggests that - since humans are face experts - processing faces should be as fast - or even faster - at the individual than at superordinate levels. In contrast, the 'superordinate advantage' hypothesis suggests that faces are processed from coarse to fine, so that the opposite pattern should be observed. To clarify this debate, three different face processing levels were compared: (1) a superordinate face categorization level (i.e. detecting human faces among animal faces), (2) a face familiarity level (i.e. recognizing famous faces among unfamiliar ones) and (3) verifying that a face is from a target person, our condition of interest. The minimal speed at which faces can be categorized (∼260ms) or recognized as familiar (∼360ms) has largely been documented in previous studies, and thus provides boundaries to compare our condition of interest to. Twenty-seven participants were included. The recent Speed and Accuracy Boosting procedure paradigm (SAB) was used since it constrains participants to use their fastest strategy. Stimuli were presented either upright or inverted. Results revealed that verifying that a face is from a target person (minimal RT at ∼260ms) was remarkably fast but longer than the face categorization level (∼240ms) and was more sensitive to face inversion. In contrast, it was much faster than recognizing a face as familiar (∼380ms), a level severely affected by face inversion. Face recognition corresponding to finding a specific person in a crowd thus appears achievable in only a quarter of a second. In favor of the 'superordinate advantage' hypothesis or coarse-to-fine account of the face visual hierarchy, these results suggest a graded engagement of the face processing system across processing levels as reflected by the face inversion effects. Furthermore, they underline how verifying that a face is from a target person and detecting a face as familiar - both often referred to as "Face Recognition" - in fact differs.
authors: Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France; CerCo CNRS UMR 5549, Pavillon Baudot CHU Purpan, BP 25202, 31052 Toulouse Cedex, France; Institut de neurosciences des systèmes, INSERM UMR 1106, Aix-Marseille Université, Faculté de Médecine, 27, Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13005 Marseille, France. Electronic address: gabriel.besson@ulg.ac.be.
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Besson
authors: Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France; CerCo CNRS UMR 5549, Pavillon Baudot CHU Purpan, BP 25202, 31052 Toulouse Cedex, France. Electronic address: gladou86@gmail.com.
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Barragan-Jason
authors: Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France; CerCo CNRS UMR 5549, Pavillon Baudot CHU Purpan, BP 25202, 31052 Toulouse Cedex, France. Electronic address: simon.thorpe@cerco.ups-tlse.fr.
authors: S J
authors: SJ
authors: Thorpe
authors: Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France; CerCo CNRS UMR 5549, Pavillon Baudot CHU Purpan, BP 25202, 31052 Toulouse Cedex, France. Electronic address: michele.fabre-thorpe@cerco.ups-tlse.fr.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Fabre-Thorpe
authors: Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France; CerCo CNRS UMR 5549, Pavillon Baudot CHU Purpan, BP 25202, 31052 Toulouse Cedex, France. Electronic address: sebastien.puma@univ-tlse2.fr.
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Puma
authors: Institut de neurosciences des systèmes, INSERM UMR 1106, Aix-Marseille Université, Faculté de Médecine, 27, Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13005 Marseille, France; CHU La Timone, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Marseille, 264 Rue Saint-Pierre, 13385 Marseille Cedex 5, France. Electronic address: mathieu-pierre.ceccaldi@ap-hm.fr.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Ceccaldi
authors: Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France; CerCo CNRS UMR 5549, Pavillon Baudot CHU Purpan, BP 25202, 31052 Toulouse Cedex, France. Electronic address: emmanuel.barbeau@cerco.ups-tlse.fr.
authors: E J
authors: EJ
authors: Barbeau
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Face categorization; Face detection; Face recognition; Familiarity; Inversion effect; Reaction times