Face Adaptation and Face Priming as Tools for Getting Insights Into the Quality of Face Space

Abstract

During the recognition of faces, the incoming perceptual information is matched against mental representations of familiar faces stored in memory. Face space models describe an abstract concept of face representations and their mental organization, in which facial representations are located on various characteristic dimensions, depending on their specific facial characteristics. However, these models are defined just as incompletely as the general understanding of face recognition. We took two phenomena from face processing to better understand face recognition, and so the nature of face space: face adaptation and face priming. The face literature has mainly focused on face adaptation, largely neglecting face priming when trying to integrate outcomes regarding face recognition into the face space framework. Consequently, the present paper aims to review both phenomena and their contributions to face recognition, representation, and face space.