The question whether face recognition in photographic negative relies more on external features and pictorial cues than in photographic positive was studied in five experiments. Recognition of whole faces as well as both external and internal features of the faces was compared in experiments 1 and 2. The conditions in which views of faces between learning and test were either identical (hence providing maximum pictorial cues) or different (hence reducing such cues) were compared in experiments 3, 4, and 5. The results showed that recognition of internal features in two-tone and multi-tone images suffered more from use of photographic negatives than recognition of external features. Testing with both multi-tone and two-tone images revealed that the deficit caused by view changes between learning and test was no more severe with negatives than with positives. Finally, removing external features made recognition of different views equally more difficult for positives and negatives. Overall, these results point to a qualitative rather than quantitative difference between processing face images in photographic positive and negative.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BruceVLangtonS, 1994“The use of pigmentation and shading information in recognising the sex and identities of faces”Perception23803–822
2.
BruceVYoungA W, 1986“Understanding face recognition”British Journal of Psychology11305–327
3.
BrunasJYoungA WEllisA W, 1990“Repetition priming from incomplete faces: Evidence for part to whole completion”British Journal of Psychology8143–56
4.
BülthoffH HEdelmanS YTarrM J, 1995“How are three-dimensional objects represented in the brain?”Cerebral Cortex5247–260
5.
CampbellRTuckM, 1995“Recognition of parts of famous-face photographs by children: An experimental note”Perception24451–456
6.
CampbellRWalkerJBaron-CohenS, 1995“The development of differential use of inner and outer face features in familiar face identification”Journal of Experimental Child Psychology59196–210
7.
CareySDiamondR, 1994“Are faces perceived as configurations more by adults than by children?”Visual Cognition1253–274
8.
DiamondRCareyS, 1986“Why faces are and are not special: An effect of expertise”Journal of Experimental Psychology: General115107–117
9.
EllisH DShepherdJ WDaviesG M, 1979“Identification of familiar and unfamiliar faces from internal and external features: Some implications for theories of face recognition”Perception8431–439
10.
FarahM J, 1996“Is face recognition ‘special’? Evidence from neuropsychology”Behavioural Brain Research16181–189
11.
FellowsB J, 1967“Chance stimulus sequences for discrimination tasks”Psychological Bulletin6787–92
12.
GalperR E, 1970“Recognition of faces in photographic negative”Psychonomic Science19207–208
13.
GalperR EHochbergJ, 1971“Recognition memory for photographs of faces”American Journal of Psychology84351–354
14.
GauthierIAndersonA WTarrM JSkudlarskiPGoreJ C, 1997“Levels of categorization in visual recognition studied using functional magnetic resonance imaging”Current Biology7645–651
15.
GauthierITarrM J, 1997“Becoming a ‘Greeble’ expert: Exploring mechanisms for face recognition”Vision Research371673–1682
16.
GauthierIWilliamsPTarrM JTanakaJ W, 1998“Training ‘Greeble’ experts: A framework for studying expert object recognition processes”Vision Research382401–2428
17.
HammJ PMcMullenP A, 1998“Effects of orientation on the identification of rotated objects depend on the level of identity”Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance24413–426
18.
HayesA, 1988“Identification of two-tone images; some implications for high- and low-spatial-frequency processes in human vision”Perception17429–436
19.
HayesTMorroneM CBurrD C, 1986“Recognition of positive and negative bandpass-filtered images”Perception15595–602
20.
KempRMcManusI CPigottT, 1990“Sensitivity to the displacement of facial features in negative and inverted images”Perception19531–543
21.
KempRPikeGWhitePMusselmanA, 1996“Perception and recognition of normal and negative faces: The role of shape from shading and pigmentation cues”Perception2537–52
22.
JohnstonAHillHCarmanN, 1992“Recognising faces: Effects of lighting direction, inversion, and brightness reversal”Perception21365–375
23.
LiuC HChaudhuriA, 1997“Face recognition with multi-tone and two-tone photographic negatives”Perception261289–1296
24.
LuriaS MStraussM S, 1978“Comparison of eye movements over faces in photographic positives and negatives”Perception7349–358
25.
MoscovitchMWinocurGBehrmannM, 1997“What is special about face recognition? Nineteen experiments on a person with visual object agnosia and dyslexia but normal face recognition”Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience9555–604
26.
NachsonIMoscovitchMUmiltàC, 1995“The contribution of external and internal features to the matching of unfamiliar faces”Psychological Research5831–37
27.
NewellF N, 1998“Stimulus context and view dependence in object recognition”Perception2747–68
28.
PerrettD IBensonP JHietanenJ KOramM WDittrichW H, 1995“When is a face not a face?”, in The Artful Eye Eds GregoryRHarrisJHeardPRoseD, (Oxford: Oxford University Press) pp 95–124
29.
PhillipsR J, 1972“Why are faces hard to recognize in photographic negative?”Perception & Psychophysics12425–426
30.
PhillipsR J, 1979“Some exploratory experiments on memory for photographs of faces”Acta Psychologica4339–56
31.
SergentJ, 1984“An investigation into component and configural processes underlying face perception”British Journal of Psychology75221–242
32.
TanakaJ WFarahM J, 1993“Parts and wholes in face recognition”Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology46A225–245
33.
TanakaJ WGauthierI, 1997“Expertise in object and face recognition”The Psychology of Learning and Motivation3683–125
34.
TanakaJ WSengcoJ A, 1997“Features and their configuration in face recognition”Memory & Cognition25583–592
35.
TarrM J, 1995“Rotating objects to recognize them: A case study on the role of viewpoint dependency in the recognition of three-dimensional objects”Psychonomic Bulletin and Review255–82
36.
ThompsonP, 1980“Margaret Thatcher: A new illusion”Perception9483–484
37.
YoungA W, 1984“Right cerebral hemisphere superiority for recognizing the internal and external features of famous faces”British Journal of Psychology75161–169
38.
YoungA WHayD CMcWeenyK HFludeB MEllisA W, 1985“Matching familiar and unfamiliar faces on internal and external features”Perception14737–746
39.
YoungA WHellawellDHayD C, 1987“Configurational information in face perception”Perception16747–759
