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SUMMARY:The configural processing hypothesis revisited:  The role of shape
  and reflectance in familiar face recognition - Stefan R. Schweinberger DF
 G Research Unit Person Perception Friedrich Schiller University\, Jena
DTSTART:20140326T123000Z
DTEND:20140326T133000Z
UID:TALK51709@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mandy Carter
DESCRIPTION:Face recognition is often believed to be based on some sort of
  ‘‘configural’’ or ‘‘holistic’’ processing. Although these
  terms are often not well defined in the literature\, an influential hypot
 hesis is that the recognition of individual faces depends\, to a considera
 ble extent\, on shape in terms of metric distances between features – so
 -called “second-order configural information”. Here I will argue that 
 this popular idea is in striking contrast to a number of recent empirical 
 findings\, and therefore is not only simplistic\, but also wrong. First\, 
 I will show evidence that familiar faces are well recognized even when idi
 osyncratic shape has been eliminated by shape normalization – suggesting
  a strong role of surface reflectance/texture information for recognition.
  I will then present several face learning experiments that examined the i
 mpact of selective photorealistic caricaturing of either shape or reflecta
 nce information on face recognition\, and on its neuronal correlates in ev
 ent-related brain potentials. These experiments confirm that shape is of l
 ittle importance for the recognition of familiar faces\, whereas shape enh
 ancement can facilitate the encoding of new faces. Moreover\, distinctive 
 reflectance information was found to be particularly important for the rec
 ognition of learned faces. Overall\, the present experiments underline the
  importance of face familiarity for mental representations of faces. The c
 onfigural processing hypothesis in its traditional form does not well acco
 unt for the findings reported\, and thus needs to be reconsidered. 
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre\, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit\, Chaucer
  Road
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