Leong, Bryan Qi Zheng
(2024)
Sailing the ocean of faces: unravelling individual differences in face recognition abilities.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Even though it has generally been assumed that humans are experts in face recognition, the ability to learn and recognize faces varies considerably across individuals. However, it is still unclear to what extent the use of facial information and/or underlying processes differs across individuals. This dissertation consists of four empirical chapters that aimed to explore the role of low-level visual processing to higher-level processes in face recognition ability (FRA) at an individual level. In the first empirical chapter (Chapter 2), we examined how the use of different bands of spatial frequency (SF) information influences FRA at different stages of face recognition. While studies have found that low SF information is important for accurate face recognition, whether it facilitates individual differences in FRA remains unexplored. In our study, we found that low and high SF information are equally important and informative in face learning and face recognition. However, no significant association was found between the recognition performance of low and high SF-filtered faces with FRA, this argues that SF processing does not contribute to individual differences in face recognition.
In Chapter 3, we aimed to gain further insight into the role of holistic processing in FRA, particularly between Western and Eastern societies. Although it is generally assumed that face recognition relies on holistic processing, whether face recognition ability can be predicted by holistic processing is currently under debate. The mixed findings from past studies could be the consequence of cultural differences across studies, as well as the use of different measures of holistic processing that showed a poor association between each other: the composite task, the part-whole task, and the inversion task. We found that FRA is associated with the part-whole and inversion effect, but not the composite effect. This was true for both Easterners and Westerners. This suggests that FRA is facilitated by similar underlying cognitive mechanisms of holistic processing across different societies. Despite that, our factor analysis revealed cultural differences in the loading patterns of holistic mechanisms into FRA. This argues that holistic face processing is not universal, wherein underlying construct in holistic face processing is culture-specific.
Accordingly in Chapter 4, we examined the role of holistic processing in Developmental Prosopagnosics (DPs) and Acquired Prosopagnosics (APs). Similar to the preceding chapter, several tests measuring the holistic processing of faces and non-face objects were used. However, the current chapter recruited groups of DPs (Experiment 1), APs (Experiment 2), and neurotypicals. At a group level, DPs showed diminished inversion and part-whole effects, but comparable magnitudes of the composite effect and global precedence effect. Interestingly, single-case analyses showed that these holistic processing deficits in DPs are heterogeneous, wherein holistic impairments are distinct across individual DPs. On the other hand, our single-case analyses revealed that two APs were both impaired in holistic processing, as measured with the face inversion effect, but not the part-whole or composite effects. This suggest that holistic processing deficits in APs are consistent. Together, the findings challenge the view that the concept of holistic processing is unitary, as well as highlight the importance of single-case analyses in characterizing neurodevelopmental profiles.
In Chapter 5, we aimed to further investigate the role of holistic processing, as well as featural processing, in face identification abilities by incorporating the fixed trajectory aperture paradigm (FTAP) during face learning and recognition. While it is generally accepted that holistic processing facilitates face recognition, recent studies suggest that poor recognition might also arise from the imprecise perception of local features in the face. Our results showed that participants recognised faces more accurately in conditions where holistic information was preserved than when it is impaired. We also show that the better use of holistic processing during face learning and face recognition was associated with better FRAs. However, enhanced featural processing during recognition, but not during learning, was related to better FRAs. Together, our findings demonstrate that good face recognition depends on distinct roles played by holistic and featural processing, at different stages of face recognition.
Altogether, across four empirical chapters, the results of this thesis showed that individual differences in face recognition abilities can be explained by high-level (i.e., holistic and/or featural processing), but not low-level (i.e., spatial frequency) processes. In the first study, we found that low and high SF processing does not facilitate face learning and face recognition. In contrast, the following studies indicated that higher-level cognitive mechanisms involving holistic and/or featural processing underlie individual differences in face recognition. These associations between holistic face processing and face recognition abilities are also found across both Western and Eastern cultures. However, holistic processing does not seem to predict face recognition deficits in prosopagnosics. Interestingly, the concept of holistic face processing is (1) not unitary, (2) nor is it universal across cultures, and presumably (3) has distinct roles during face learning and face recognition.
| Item Type: |
Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
(PhD)
|
| Supervisors: |
Hussain Ismail, Ahamed Miflah
Estudillo, Alejandro J. |
| Keywords: |
face recognition, face recognition ability (FRA), individual differences, low-level visual processing, higher-level processes, spatial frequency (SF) information, holistic processing, featural processing, cultural differences, western societies, eastern societies |
| Subjects: |
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology |
| Faculties/Schools: |
University of Nottingham, Malaysia > Faculty of Science and Engineering — Science > School of Psychology |
| Item ID: |
77985 |
| Depositing User: |
Leong, Bryan
|
| Date Deposited: |
27 Jul 2024 04:40 |
| Last Modified: |
27 Jul 2024 04:40 |
| URI: |
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/77985 |
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