The Effect of Texture on Face Identification and Configural Information Processing
The Effect of Texture on Face Identification and Configural Information Processing

Summary/Abstract: Shape and texture are an integral part of face identity. In the present study, the importance of face texture for face identification and detection of configural manipulation (i.e., spatial relation among facial features) was examined by comparing grayscale face photographs (i.e., real faces) and line drawings of the same faces. Whereas real faces provide information about texture and shape of faces, line drawings are lacking texture cues. A change-detection task and a forced-choice identification task were used with both stimuli categories. Within the change detection task, participants had to decide whether the size of the eyes of two sequentially presented faces had changed or not. After having made this decision, three faces were shown to the subjects and they had to identify the previously shown face among them. Furthermore, context (full vs. cropped faces) and orientation (upright vs. inverted) were manipulated. The results obtained in the change detection task suggest that configural information was used in processing real faces, while part-based and featural information was used in processing line-drawings. Additionally, real faces were identified more accurately than line drawings, and identification was less context but more orientation sensitive than identification of line drawings. Taken together, the results of the present study provide new evidence stressing the importance of face texture for identity encoding and configural face processing.

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