Models for the processing and identification of faces

Abstract

Representations of human faces were constructed from Identi-Kit in a comparison of several possible models of information processing relating to facial recognition. There was no experimental evidence that faces were treated as unitary Gestalten, or that the component features were processed to any significant extent in parallel, even when the stimuli were presented as photographic positives in the normal upright mode. Instead, the best theoretical model to fit the data involved serial self-terminating processing, without replacement. Task difficulty, determining both processing time and number of errors made, was found to be a function both of the number of critical features present and the orientation (upright or inverted). Photographic negatives were handled in every way the same as positives. The more difficult the task, the stronger the evidence for a serial model and the greater the effects of practice. The latter suggests that, given time, Ss could handle inverted presentations as readily as upright ones, and that inversion may merely increase the difficulty in separating out the individual features for subsequent processing. © 1971 Psychonomic Society, Inc.