LINE-DRAWINGS OF FACES REDUCE CONFIGURAL PROCESSING

The highly specialised skill of face recognition found in humans is th ought to be dependent on the processing of a combination of edge-based and surface-based information, and of single-feature as well as of co nfigural information. An investigation was carried out into how the sa liency of facial information differs between faces presented as line d rawings and the same faces presented as photographs. In experiment 1: the participants showed a decreased sensitivity in their detection of changed configural properties if the faces were presented as line draw ings. In experiment 2 an investigation was carried out into whether di stinctiveness due to configural properties loses its impact on recogni tion when faces are transformed to line drawings. For each of twenty u nfamiliar male faces, a more 'distinctive' version was created by movi ng the eye region down. The increase of distinctiveness was confirmed in a rating phase. In a later recognition test, with the same stimuli presented either as line drawings or as photographs, the more distinct ive stimuli produced higher recognition rates when presented as photog raphs but the advantage disappeared when the same faces were presented as line drawings. The changes in sensitivity to configural properties thus contribute to the poor recognition of faces presented as line re presentations.