The Face inversion Effect and Perceptual Learning: Features and Configurations

This thesis explores the causes of the face inversion effect, which is a substantial decrement in performance in recognising facial stimuli when they are presented upside down (Yin,1969). I will provide results from both behavioural and electrophysiological (EEG) experiments to aid in the analysis of this effect. Over the course of six chapters I summarise my work during the four years of my PhD, and propose an explanation of the face inversion effect that is based on the general mechanisms for learning that we also share with other animals. In Chapter 1 I describe and discuss some of the main theories of face inversion. Chapter 2 used behavioural and EEG techniques to test one of the most popular explanations of the face inversion effect proposed by Diamond and Carey (1986). They proposed that it is the disruption of the expertise needed to exploit configural information that leads to the inversion effect. The experiments reported in Chapter 2 were published as in the Proceedings of the 34th annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society. In Chapter 3 I explore other potential causes of the inversion effect confirming that not only configural information is involved, but also single feature orientation information plays an important part in the inversion effect. All the experiments included in Chapter 3 are part of a paper accepted for publication in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Chapter 4 of this thesis went on to attempt to answer the question of whether configural information is really necessary to obtain an inversion effect. All the experiments presented in Chapter 4 are part of a manuscript in preparation for submission to the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Chapter 5 includes some of the most innovative experiments from my PhD work. In particular it offers some behavioural and electrophysiological evidence that shows that it is possible to apply an associative approach to face inversion. Chapter 5 is a key component of this thesis because on the one hand it explains the face inversion effect using general mechanisms of perceptual learning (MKM model). On the other hand it also shows that there seems to be something extra needed to explain face recognition entirely. All the experiments included in Chapter 5 were reported in a paper submitted to the Journal of Experimental Psychology; Animal Behaviour Processes. Finally in Chapter 6 I summarise the implications that this work will have for explanations of the face inversion effect and some of the general processes involved in face perception.EGF scolarshi

Perceptual learning for a familiar category under inversion: An analogue of face inversion?

Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science, Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Boston, Massachusetts, July 20-23, 2011© 2011 Cognitive Science Society.This study investigated the link between expertise for a prototype-defined category and the face inversion effect. Participants in this study were first presented with a categorisation task in which they were asked to sort a number of chequerboards (in an upright orientation) into two categories. Then, in the next (study) phase, participants were presented with a set of chequerboards which included exemplars (some upright, some inverted) from one of the two categories that participants were familiar with, plus exemplars (also upright or inverted) from a novel category. Following this, participants were tested for old/new recognition for these exemplars We succeeded in obtaining the same pattern of effects reported in McLaren (1997), i.e. a significant inversion effect for stimuli drawn from the familiar category, but with standard recognition procedures. We interpret the results in terms of McLaren and Mackintosh's (2000) theory of representation development.University of Exete

The Face Inversion Effect: Roles of First and Second-Order Configural Information

PublishedThe face inversion effect (FIE) is a reduction in recognition performance for inverted faces compared with upright faces. Several studies have proposed that a type of configural information, called second-order relational information, becomes more important with increasing expertise and gives rise to the FIE. However, recently it has been demonstrated that it is possible to obtain an FIE with facial features presented in isolation, showing that configural information is not necessary for this effect to occur. In this article we test whether there is a role for configural information in producing the FIE and whether second- or first-order relational information is particularly important. In Experiment 1, we investigated the role of configural information and local feature orientation by using a new type of “Thatcherizing” transformation on our set of faces, aiming to disrupt second-order and local feature orientation information but keeping all first-order properties unaltered. The results showed a significant reduction in the FIE for these “new” Thatcherized faces, but it did not entirely disappear. Experiment 2 confirmed the FIE for new Thatcherized faces, and Experiment 3 establishes that both local feature orientation and first-order relational information have a role in determining the FIE

Perceptual learning and face recognition: Disruption of second order relational information reduces the face inversion effect

Expanding the Space of Cognitive Science, Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Boston, Massachusetts, July 20-23, 2011© 2011 Cognitive Science Society.The face inversion effect is a reduction in recognition performance for inverted faces compared to upright faces that is greater than that typically observed with other stimulus types (e.g. houses; Yin, 1969). This study investigated the link between second-order relational structure and the face inversion effect suggested by Diamond and Carey (1986). The idea is that expertise gained as a consequence of a great deal of experience with exemplars derived from a familiar category, that possess what Diamond and Carey term second order relational structure, can produce an improved ability to distinguish between and recognise members of this category, which is lost on inversion. In this paper we report two experiments that confirm that we can obtain a strong face inversion effect, and that the magnitude of this effect can be reduced by disrupting the second order relational structure of the faces

The face inversion effect--parts and wholes: individual features and their configuration

Journal ArticleCopyright © 2013 The Experimental Psychology SocietyThe face inversion effect (FIE) is a reduction in recognition performance for inverted faces (compared to upright faces) that is greater than that typically observed with other stimulus types (e.g., houses). The work of Diamond and Carey, suggests that a special type of configural information, "second-order relational information" is critical in generating this inversion effect. However, Tanaka and Farah concluded that greater reliance on second-order relational information did not directly result in greater sensitivity to inversion, and they suggested that the FIE is not entirely due to a reliance on this type of configural information. A more recent review by McKone and Yovel provides a meta-analysis that makes a similar point. In this paper, we investigated the contributions made by configural and featural information to the FIE. Experiments 1a and1b investigated the link between configural information and the FIE. Remarkably, Experiment 1b showed that disruption of all configural information of the type considered in Diamond and Carey's analysis (both first and second order) was effective in reducing recognition performance, but did not significantly impact on the FIE. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that face processing is affected by the orientation of individual features and that this plays a major role in producing the FIE. The FIE was only completely eliminated when we disrupted the single feature orientation information in addition to the configural information, by using a new type of transformation similar to Thatcherizing our sets of scrambled faces. We conclude by noting that our results for scrambled faces are consistent with an account that has recognition performance entirely determined by the proportion of upright facial features within a stimulus, and that any ability to make use of the spatial configuration of these features seems to benefit upright and inverted normal faces alike

The effect of disrupting configural information on rats' performance in the Morris water maze

PublishedJournal ArticleMany experiments on spatial navigation suggest that a rat uses the configuration of extramaze landmarks to guide its choice of arm or location to visit. In the present study, based on Chamizo Rodríguez, Espinet, and Mackintosh's (2012) navigation paradigm, we conducted a series of experiments in which we focused on how changes to the configuration of stimuli surrounding the maze, implemented by transposing the location of both near and far landmarks, significantly affected rats' performance (Experiment1, Test Phase 1). Subsequent tests demonstrated that it was the near landmarks that played the major role in this navigation task (Experiment 1, Test Phases 2 and 3). Experiment 2 provided evidence for a novel type of inversion effect in the water maze, by showing that rotation by 180° of the location of one set of landmarks relative to a directional cue also strongly affected performance.Spanish “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación

The face inversion effect and evoked brain potentials: Complete loss of configural information affects the N170

Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society.The face inversion effect (FIE) is a reduction in recognition performance for inverted faces compared to upright faces that is greater than that typically observed with other stimulus types (e.g. houses; Yin, 1969). Nevertheless, the demonstration that the inversion effect in recognition memory can be as strong with images of dogs as with faces when the subjects are experts in specific dog breeds (Diamond & Carey, 1986), suggests that there may be other factors, such as expertise, which give rise to the FIE. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects performed an Old/New recognition study on normal and scrambled faces presented in upright and inverted orientations. We obtained the standard result for normal faces: The electrophysiological activity corresponding to the N170 was larger and delayed for normal inverted faces as compared to normal upright ones. On the other hand, the ERPs for scrambled inverted faces were not significantly larger or delayed as compared to scrambled upright stimuli. These results, in combination, show how the effect of inversion on the N170 is reliably greater when the faces are normal compared to scrambled, which suggests the disruption of configural information affects the FIE.University of Exete

Face recognition and brain potentials: Disruption of configural information reduces the face inversion effect

Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society.The face inversion effect (FIE) refers to the decline in performance in recognizing faces that are inverted compared to the recognition of faces in their normal upright orientation (Yin, 1969). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while subjects performed an Old/New recognition study on normal and Thatcherised faces presented in upright and inverted orientation. A large difference in processing between normal upright faces and normal inverted faces was observed at occipital-temporal sites about 165 ms following stimulus onset, mainly in the right hemisphere. Thus electrophysiological activity, which corresponds to the previously described N170, had larger amplitude and was delayed for normal inverted faces as compared to normal upright ones. By contrast, the activity for Thatcherised inverted faces was not significantly changed or delayed as compared to Thatcherised upright stimuli. These results combine to show how the effect of face inversion on the N170 is reliably greater when the faces are normal rather than Thatcherised. Finally, these finding complement, at a neural level, our behavioral studies which suggest that the loss of some configural information affects the FIE

Perceptual learning and inversion effects: Recognition of prototype-defined familiar checkerboards.

PublishedJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tThe face inversion effect is a defection in performance in recognizing inverted faces compared with faces presented in their usual upright orientation typically believed to be specific for facial stimuli. McLaren (1997) was able to demonstrate that (a) an inversion effect could be obtained with exemplars drawn from a familiar category, such that upright exemplars were better discriminated than inverted exemplars; and (b) that the inversion effect required that the familiar category be prototype-defined. In this article, we replicate and extend these findings. We show that the inversion effect can be obtained in a standard old/new recognition memory paradigm, demonstrate that it is contingent on familiarization with a prototype-defined category, and establish that the effect is made up of two components. We confirm the advantage for upright exemplars drawn from a familiar, prototype-defined category, and show that there is a disadvantage for inverted exemplars drawn from this category relative to suitable controls. We also provide evidence that there is an N170 event-related potential signature for this effect. These results allow us to integrate a theory of perceptual learning originally proposed by McLaren, Kaye, and Mackintosh (1989) with explanations of the face inversion effect, first reported by Yin.University of ExeterNational Key Fundamental Research (973) Progra

Prospective validation of the CLIP score: a new prognostic system for patient with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

Prognosis of patients with cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) depends on both residual liver function and tumor extension. The CLIP score includes Child-Pugh stage, tumor morphology and extension, serum alfa-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, and portal vein thrombosis. We externally validated the CLIP score and compared its discriminatory ability and predictive power with that of the Okuda staging system in 196 patients with cirrhosis and HCC prospectively enrolled in a randomized trial. No significant associations were found between the CLIP score and the age, sex, and pattern of viral infection. There was a strong correlation between the CLIP score and the Okuda stage, As of June 1999, 150 patients (76.5%) had died. Median survival time was 11 months, overall, and it was 36, 22, 9, 7, and 3 months for CLIP categories 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 to 6, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the CLIP score had additional explanatory power above that of the Okuda stage. This was true for both patients treated with locoregional therapy or not. A quantitative estimation of 2-year survival predictive power showed that the CLIP score explained 37% of survival variability, compared with 21% explained by Okuda stage. In conclusion, the CLIP score, compared with the Okuda staging system, gives more accurate prognostic information, is statistically more efficient, and has a greater survival predictive power. It could be useful in treatment planning by improving baseline prognostic evaluation of patients with RCC, and could be used in prospective therapeutic trials as a stratification variable, reducing the variability of results owing to patient selection