Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct;83(7):2905-2923.
doi: 10.3758/s13414-021-02337-7. Epub 2021 Jun 27.

Different measures of holistic face processing tap into distinct but partially overlapping mechanisms

Isabelle Boutet #  1 , Elizabeth A Nelson #  2 , Nicholas Watier  3 , Denis Cousineau  2 , Sébastien Béland  4 , Charles A Collin  2
Affiliations

Different measures of holistic face processing tap into distinct but partially overlapping mechanisms

Isabelle Boutet et al. Atten Percept Psychophys. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Holistic processing, which includes the integration of facial features and analysis of their relations to one another, is a hallmark of what makes faces 'special'. Various experimental paradigms purport to measure holistic processing but these have often produced inconsistent results. This has led researchers to question the nature and structure of the mechanism(s) underlying holistic processing. Using an individual differences approach, researchers have examined relations between various measures of holistic processing in an attempt to resolve these questions. In keeping with this, we examined relationships between four commonly used measures of holistic face processing in a large group of participants (N = 223): (1) The Face Inversion Effect, (2) the Part Whole Effect (PWE), (3) the Composite Face Effect, and (4) the Configural Featural Detection Task (CFDT). Several novel methodological and analytical elements were introduced, including the use of factor analysis and the inclusion of control conditions to confirm the face specificity of all of the effects measured. The four indexes of holistic processing derived from each measure loaded onto two factors, one encompassing the PWE and the CFDT, and one encompassing the CE. The 16 conditions tested across the four tasks loaded onto four factors, each factor corresponding to a different measure. These results, together with those of other studies, suggest that holistic processing is a multifaceted construct and that different measures tap into distinct but partially overlapping elements of it.

Keywords: Configural processing; Face recognition; Featural processing; Holistic processing; Individual difference scores.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Boutet, I., Collin, C., & Faubert, J. (2003). Configural face encoding and spatial frequency information. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 65(7), 1078–1093. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194835 - DOI
    1. Boutet, I., & Faubert, J. (2006). Recognition of faces and complex objects in younger and older adults. Memory & Cognition, 34(4), 854–864. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193432 - DOI
    1. Boutet, I., Gentes-Hawn, A., & Chaudhuri, A. (2002). The influence of attention on holistic face encoding. Cognition, 84(3), 321–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(02)00072-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Boutet, I., Lemieux, C. L., Goulet, M. A., & Collin, C. A. (2017). Faces elicit different scanning patterns depending on task demands. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 79(4), 1050–1063. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-017-1284-y . - DOI
    1. Boutet, I., & Meinhardt-Injac, B. (2018). Age differences in face processing: The role of perceptual degradation and holistic processing. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 74(6), 933–942. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbx172 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources