The perception of a face is no more than the sum of its parts
- PMID: 22395131
- PMCID: PMC3410436
- DOI: 10.1177/0956797611427407
The perception of a face is no more than the sum of its parts
Abstract
When you see a person's face, how do you go about combining his or her facial features to make a decision about who that person is? Most current theories of face perception assert that the ability to recognize a human face is not simply the result of an independent analysis of individual features, but instead involves a holistic coding of the relationships among features. This coding is thought to enhance people's ability to recognize a face beyond what would be expected if each feature were shown in isolation. In the study reported here, we explicitly tested this idea by comparing human performance on facial-feature integration with that of an optimal Bayesian integrator. Contrary to the predictions of most current notions of face perception, our findings showed that human observers integrate facial features in a manner that is no better than would be predicted by their ability to use each individual feature when shown in isolation. That is, a face is perceived no better than the sum of its individual parts.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declared that they had no conflicts of interest with respect to their authorship or the publication of this article.
Figures
![Fig. 1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/3410436/bin/nihms393548f1.gif)
![Fig. 2](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/3410436/bin/nihms393548f2.gif)
![Fig. 3](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/3410436/bin/nihms393548f3.gif)
![Fig. 4](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/3410436/bin/nihms393548f4.gif)
Similar articles
-
Integration of Facial Information is Sub-Optimal.Cogsci. 2009;2009:2897-2901. Cogsci. 2009. PMID: 25309964 Free PMC article.
-
The perception of a familiar face is no more than the sum of its parts.Psychon Bull Rev. 2014 Dec;21(6):1465-72. doi: 10.3758/s13423-014-0632-3. Psychon Bull Rev. 2014. PMID: 24777442 Free PMC article.
-
The neuroanatomic basis of facial perception and variable facial discrimination ability: implications for orthodontics.Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop. 2007 Sep;132(3):293-301. doi: 10.1016/j.ajodo.2006.04.031. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop. 2007. PMID: 17826596 Review.
-
A mixture of sparse coding models explaining properties of face neurons related to holistic and parts-based processing.PLoS Comput Biol. 2017 Jul 25;13(7):e1005667. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005667. eCollection 2017 Jul. PLoS Comput Biol. 2017. PMID: 28742816 Free PMC article.
-
Understanding face perception by means of human electrophysiology.Trends Cogn Sci. 2014 Jun;18(6):310-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.02.013. Epub 2014 Apr 1. Trends Cogn Sci. 2014. PMID: 24703600 Review.
Cited by
-
Measuring the Contributions of Perceptual and Attentional Processes in the Complete Composite Face Paradigm.Vision (Basel). 2023 Nov 17;7(4):76. doi: 10.3390/vision7040076. Vision (Basel). 2023. PMID: 37987296 Free PMC article.
-
Effects of age on face perception: Reduced eye region discrimination ability but intact holistic processing.Psychol Aging. 2023 Sep;38(6):548-561. doi: 10.1037/pag0000759. Epub 2023 Aug 17. Psychol Aging. 2023. PMID: 37589691
-
Linear Integration of Sensory Evidence over Space and Time Underlies Face Categorization.J Neurosci. 2021 Sep 15;41(37):7876-7893. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3055-20.2021. Epub 2021 Jul 29. J Neurosci. 2021. PMID: 34326145 Free PMC article.
-
Cortical Pathways or Mechanism in the Face Inversion Effect in Patients with First-Episode Schizophrenia.Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2021 Jun 10;17:1893-1906. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S302584. eCollection 2021. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2021. PMID: 34140773 Free PMC article.
-
Composite Face Effect Predicts Configural Encoding in Visual Short-Term Memory.Front Psychol. 2019 Dec 11;10:2753. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02753. eCollection 2019. Front Psychol. 2019. PMID: 31920808 Free PMC article.
References
-
- Dubois S, Rossion B, Schiltz C, Bodart JM, Michel C, Bruyer R, Crommelinck M. Effect of familiarity on the processing of human faces. NeuroImage. 1999;9:278–289. - PubMed
-
- Efron B, Tibshirani R. An introduction to the bootstrap. New York, NY: Chapman & Hall; 1993.
-
- Ellis HD, Shepherd JW, Davies GM. Identification of familiar and unfamiliar faces from internal and external features: Some implications for theories of face recognition. Perception. 1979;8:431–439. - PubMed
-
- Ernst MO, Banks MS. Humans integrate visual and haptic information in a statistically optimal fashion. Nature. 2002;415:429–433. - PubMed
-
- Farah MJ, Tanaka JW, Drain HM. What causes the face inversion effect? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 1995;21:628–634. - PubMed
Publication types
MeSH terms
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources