Abstract
Studies of the inverted-face effect typically use photos as stimuli. Inverting photos not only misorients the face but also reverses important shading and shadow cues. We decoupled the influence of spatial orientation and the direction of lighting in three experiments and found that the relation between these factors varied with the task given to observers. When the task required identification of faces (Experiments 1 and 3), the factors were additive, consistent with a strategy of mental rotation of the face prior to an interpretion of the shading cues. When faces were assigned to coarse categories (Experiments 2 and 3), these factors interacted, consistent with a more piecemeal approach to face processing. We propose that the identification of a specific individual depends on configurational information, which is preserved if the image of an inverted face is mentally rotated before the identification process is begun.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bruce, V., Healey, P., Burton, M., Doyle, T., Coombes, A., &Linney, A. (1991). Recognizing facial surfaces.Perception,20, 755–769.
Carey, S., &Diamond, R. (1977, January 21). From piecemeal to configurational representation of faces.Science,195, 312–314.
Damasio, A. R. (1985). Prosopagnosia.Trends in Neurosciences,8, 132–135.
Diamond, R., &Carey, S. (1986). Why faces are and are not special: An effect of expertise.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,105, 107–117.
Farah, M. J., Tanaka, J. W., &Drain, H. M. (1995). What causes the face inversion effect?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,21, 628–634.
Faw, H. W. (1992). Recognition of unfamiliar faces: Procedural and methodological considerations.British Journal of Psychology,83, 25–37.
Goldstein, A. G., &Chance, J. E. (1980). Memory for faces and schema theory.Journal of Psychology,105, 47–59.
Gregory, R. L. (1973). The confounded eye. In R. L. Gregory & E. H. Gombrich (Eds.),Illusion in nature and art (pp. 49–96). London: Duckworth.
Hietanen, J. K., Perrett, D. I., Oram, M. W., Benson, P. J., &Dittrich, W. H. (1992). The effects of lighting conditions on responses of cells selective for face views in the macaque temporal cortex.Experimental Brain Research,89, 157–171.
Hillger, L. A., &Koenig, O. (1991). Separable mechanisms in face processing: Evidence from hemispheric specialization.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,3, 42–58.
Hochberg, J., &Galper, R. E. (1967). Recognition of faces: I. An exploratory study.Psychonomic Science,9, 619–620.
Hochberg, J., &Gellman, L. (1977). The effect of landmark features on mental rotation times.Memory & Cognition,5, 23–26.
Johnston, A., Hill, H., &Carman, N. (1992). Recognizing faces: Effects of lighting direction, inversion, and brightness reversal.Perception,21, 365–375.
Kleffner, D. A., &Ramachandran, V. S. (1992). On the perception of shape from shading.Perception & Psychophysics,52, 18–36.
Mandler, G. (1980). Recognizing: The judgment of previous occurrence.Psychological Review,87, 252–271.
McKelvie, S. J. (1991). Effects of processing strategy and transformation on recognition memory for photographs of faces.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,29, 98–100.
Ramachandran, V. S. (1988). Perceiving shape from shading.Scientific American,259, 76–83.
Rhodes, G. (1994). Secrets of the face.New Zealand Journal of Psychology,23, 3–17.
Rhodes, G., Brake, S., &Atkinson, A. P. (1993). What’s lost in inverted faces?Cognition,47, 25–57.
Rock, I. (1973).Orientation and form. New York: Academic Press.
Sergent, J. (1984a). Configural processing of faces in the left and right cerebral hemispheres.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,10, 554–572.
Sergent, J. (1984b). An investigation into component and configural processes underlying face perception.British Journal of Psychology,75, 221–242.
Tanaka, J. W., &Farah, M. J. (1993). Parts and wholes in face recognition.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,46A, 225–245.
Valentine, T. (1988). Upside-down faces: A review of the effect of inversion upon face recognition.British Journal of Psychology,79, 471–491.
Valentine, T., &Bruce, V. (1988). Mental rotation of faces.Memory & Cognition,16, 556–566.
Yin, R. K. (1969). Looking at upside-down faces.Journal of Experimental Psychology,81, 141–145.
Yin, R. K. (1970). Face recognition: A dissociable ability?Neuropsychologia,23, 395–402.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Enns, J.T., Shore, D.I. Separate influences of orientation and lighting in the inverted-face effect. Perception & Psychophysics 59, 23–31 (1997). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206844
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206844