Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Recent studies on face processing have shown our sensitivity to changes in facial configural and featural information. However, to our knowledge, the integration of the two types of facial information is poorly understood. To this end, this study explored the integration of facial information cross configural and featural dimensions within specific facial regions (i.e., eyes and mouth). The theoretical hypothesis includes (1) If participants can integrate facial information in both facial configural and featural dimensions, they should be more sensitive to changes in dual-dimension information as opposed to those in a single-dimension, that is a cross-dimension covariation enhancement effect; (2) The “cross-dimension covariation enhancement effect” should be face region-selective: It is expected to be stronger in the eyes region than the mouth region; (3) Face inversion should impair the “cross-dimension covariation enhancement effect”. To test these predictions, we designed two 3 (facial information type: configural change, featural change, both change) × 2 (face orientation: upright, inversion) experiments for eye region and mouth region information change respectively. Participants' sensitivity to information change was measured in a 2-face discrimination task. Results revealed that (1) participants were more sensitive to “dual” change in eye region as compared to changes in either single configural or featural information; (2) this effect is both orientation-specific (i.e., no effect was found in eye region when faces were inverted) and region-specific (i.e., no effect was found in mouth region regardless of face orientation), suggesting that this effect cannot be simply explained by the extra facial information changes in the “dual” condition; (3) When single facial information was altered, face inversion reduced the detection of facial information changes in the mouth region, but not those changes in the eyes region. In sum, our findings showed that face cross-dimension (i.e., configural and featural) information integration occurred in the eye region of upright faces, but not in the mouth region or inverted faces. The face orientation-specificity and facial region-specificity suggested that the integration happens at facial-region level, possibly involving face holistic processing. The traditional face holistic processing hypothesis emphasized integrating facial information across whole face region. The current findings suggest that face region might act as a key component in the framework of holistic face processing theory. Finally, by revisiting the “perceptual field” hypothesis, the “expertise area” hypothesis, and the “region-selective holistic processing” hypothesis, we discussed an eye region-centered, hierarchical, multi-dimensional information integration hypothesis.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Experimental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2021-11-23
Abstract：面孔知觉可能在区域尺度上发生多维信息整合，但迄今无特异性实验证据。本研究在两个实验中操纵面孔眼睛区域或嘴巴区域的单维构型或特征信息，测量人们觉察单维变化或跨维共变的敏感度，以此检测面孔区域尺度上的多维信息整合有何现象与规律，进而揭示面孔知觉的多维信息整合机制。实验获得三个发现：（1）正立面孔眼睛区域的信息变化觉察呈现出“跨维共变增益效应”，跨维信息共变觉察的敏感度显著高于任意一种单维信息变化觉察的敏感度；（2）“跨维共变增益效应”只在正立面孔的眼睛区域出现，在倒置面孔的眼睛区域、正立面孔的嘴巴区域或倒置面孔的嘴巴区域都没有出现，因此具有面孔区域特异性和面孔朝向特异性；（3）就单维信息变化觉察而言，眼睛区域的敏感度不会受到面孔倒置的损伤，但是嘴巴区域的敏感度会受到面孔倒置的显著损伤。综合可知，面孔知觉确实会发生区域尺度上的信息整合，而且它不是普遍性的信息量效应，是特异性的（只发生在正立面孔的眼睛区域）将单维信息分辨和全脸多维整合联系起来的整合加工；提示我们对全脸多维信息知觉整合的理解需要从传统的面孔整体加工假设（face holistic processing hypothesis）扩展到以眼睛为中心的层级化（hierarchical）多维信息整合机制。
Peer Review Status:
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