Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Facial Attention and Spacetime Fragments

  • Published:
Axiomathes Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Inverting a face impairs perception of its features and recognition of its identity. Whether faces are special in this regard is a current topic of research and debate. Kanizsa studied the role of facial features and environmental context in perceiving the emotion and identity of upright and inverted faces. He found that observers are biased to interpret faces in a retinal coordinate frame, and that this bias is readily overruled by increased realism of facial features, but not easily overruled by environmental context. An additional factor contributing to a retinal coordinate-frame interpretation may be the ambiguous nature of the face stimuli. Since his facial expressions are interpretable both upright and inverted, they may in both orientations activate an endogenous attentional process for faces. We present visual search and change-blindness experiments that explore how inversion, negation, and facial emotion affect visual attention to static faces. We find that attention to faces is impaired by inversion and negation. We also find that the parts of the face that receive greater attention can be influenced by the emotional expression of the face. We propose to extend these experiments to dynamic faces. To this end, we develop a theory of the visual representation of dynamic faces, in which faces are represented by classes of `spacetime fragments'-moving regions of the face with high informational content. We then present ideas for future experiments which are motivated by the spacetime fragment theory, and which should serve to constrain its further development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Althoff, R.R. and N.J. Cohen: 1999, 'Eye-Movement-Based Memory Effect: A Reprocessing Effect in Face Perception', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 25, 997–1010.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ballard, D.H., M.M. Hayhoe, and J.B. Pelz: 1995, 'Memory Representations in Natural Tasks', Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience B, 66–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellefeuille, A. and J. Faubert: 1998, 'Independence of Contour and Biological-Motion Cues for Motion-Defined Animal Shapes', Perception 27, 225–235.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, B.M., D.D. Hoffman, and C. Prakash: 1993, 'Recognition polynomials', Journal of the Optical Society of America A10, 759–764.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentin, S., T. Allison, A. Puce, E. Perez, and G. McCarthy: 1996, 'Electrophysiological Studies of Face Perception in Humans', Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 8, 551–565.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bentin, S. and L.Y. Deouell: 2000, 'Structural Encoding and Identification in Face Processing: ERP Evidence for Separate Processes', Cognitive Neuropsychology 17, 35–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biederman I.: 1985, 'Human Image Understanding: Recent Research and Theory', Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing 32, 29–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borod, J.C., W. Vingiano, and F. Cytryn: 1988, 'The Effects of Emotion and Ocular Dominance on Lateral Eye Movement', Neuropsychologia 26, 213–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, C.J., R. Desimone, and C.G. Gross: 1981, 'Visual Properties of Neurons in the Polysensory Area in Superior Temporal Sulcus of the Macaque', Journal of Neurophysiology 46, 369–384.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bruce, V. and S. Langton: 1994, 'The Use of Pigmentation and Shading Information in Recognising the Sex and Identities of Faces', Perception 23, 803–822.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cauquil, A.S., G.E. Edmonds, and M.J. Taylor: 2000, 'Is the Face-Sensitive N170 the Only ERP not Affected by Selective Attention?', NeuroReport 11, 2167–2171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavanagh, P., A. Labianca, and I. Thornton: 2001, 'Attention-Based Visual Routines: Sprites', Cognition 80, 47–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, T.N. and D.D. Hoffman: 2002, 'Attention to Faces: A Change-Blindness Study', Perception 31, 1123–1146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, G. and J. Driver: 1994, 'Parallel Detection of Kanizsa Subjective Figures in the Human Visual System', Nature 371, 791–793.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Desimone, R., T.D. Albright, C.G. Gross, and C. Bruce: 1984, 'Stimulus-Selective Properties of Inferior Temporal Neurons in the Macaque', Journal of Neuroscience 8, 2051–2062.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deubel, H. and W.X. Schneider: 1996, 'Saccade Target Selection and Object Recognition: Evidence for a Common Attentional Mechanism', Vision Research 36, 1827–1837.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, R. and S. Carey: 1986, 'Why Faces are and are Not Special: An Effect of Expertise', Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 115, 107–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Downing, C. and S. Pinker: 1985, 'The Spatial Structure of Visual Attention', in M. Posner and O.S.M. Marin (eds.), Attention and Performance, Vol. XI, London: Erlbaum) pp. 171–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Driver, J. and G.C. Baylis: 1998, 'Attention and Visual Object Segmentation', in R. Parasuraman (ed.), The Attentive Brain, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 299–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Driver, J., G. Davis, C. Russell, M. Turatto, and E. Freeman: 2001, 'Segmentation, Attention, and Phenomenal Visual Objects', Cognition 80, 61–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, J.: 1984, 'Selective Attention and the Organization of Visual Information', Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 113, 501–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, J.: 1993a, 'Coordination of What and Where in Visual Attention', Perception 22, 1261–1270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, J.: 1993b, 'Similarity between Concurrent Visual Discriminations: Dimensions and Objects', Perception & Psychophysics 54, 425–430.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, J. and I. Nimmo-Smith: 1996, 'Objects and Attributes in Divided Attention: Surface and Boundary Systems', Perception & Psychophysics 58, 1076–1084.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eastwood, J.D., D. Smilek, and P.M. Merikle: 2001, 'Differential Attentional Guidance by Unattended Faces Expressing Positive and Negative Emotion', Perception and Psychophysics 63(6), 1004–1013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Egly, R., J. Driver, and R. Rafal: 1994, 'Shifting Visual Attention between Objects and Locations: Evidence for Normal and Parietal Lesion Subjects', Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 123, 161–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eimer, M.: 1998, 'Does the Face-Specific N170 Component Reflect the Activity of a Specialized Eye Detector?', NeuroReport 9, 2945–2948.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eimer, M.: 2000a, 'Event-Related Brain Potentials Distinguish Processing Stages Involved in Face Perception and Recognition', Clinical Neurophysiology 111, 694–705.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eimer, M.: 2000b, 'Attentional Modulations of Event-Related Brain Potentials Sensitive to Faces', Cognitive Neuropsychology 17, 103–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eimer, M.: 2000c, 'Effects of Face Inversion on the Structural Encoding and Recognition of Faces: Evidence from Event-Related Brain Potentials', Cognitive Brain Research 10, 145–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eimer, M., and R.A. McCarthy: 1999, 'Prosopagnosia and Structural Encoding of Faces: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials', NeuroReport 10, 255–259.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enns, J.T. and R. Rensink: 1998, 'Early Completion of Occluded Objects', Vision Research 38, 2489–2505.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farah, M.J., C. Rabinowitz, G.E. Quinn, and G.T. Liu: 2001, 'Early Commitment of Neural Substrates for Face Recognition', Cognitive Neuropsychology 17(1/2/3), 117–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Galper, R.E: 1970, 'Recognition of Faces in Photographic Negative', Psychonomic Science 19, 207–208.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galper, R.E. and J. Hochberg: 1971, 'Recognition Memory for Photographs of Faces', American Journal of Psychology 84, 351–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • George, N., J. Evans, N. Fiori, J. Davidoff, and B. Renault: 1996, 'Brain Events Related to Normal and Moderately Scrambled Faces', Cognitive Brain Research 4, 65–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gosselin, F. and P.G. Schyns: 2001, 'Bubbles: A Technique to Reveal the Use of Information in Recognition Tasks', Vision Research 41, 2261–2271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haxby, J.V., E.A. Hoffman, and M.I. Gobbini: 2000, 'The Distributed Human Neural System for Face Perception', Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4, 223–233.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayhoe, M.M., D. Bensinger, and D.H. Ballard: 1998, 'Task Constraints in VisualWorking Memory', Vision Research 38, 125–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helmholtz, H.: 1867, Handbuch der physiologischen optik, Leipzig: Voss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, H. and A. Johnston: 2001, 'Categorizing Sex and Identity from the Biological Motion of Faces', Current Biology 11, 880–885.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, D.D. and W.A. Richards: 1984, 'Parts of Recognition', Cognition 18, 65–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, D.D. and M. Singh: 1997, 'Salience of Visual Parts', Cognition 69, 29–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holcombe, A.O., J. Intriligator, and P.U. Tse: 2000, 'The Spoke Brightness Illusion Originates at an Early Motion Processing Stage', Perception & Psychophysics 62, 1619–1624.

    Google Scholar 

  • Intriligator, J.M: 1997, 'The Spatial Resolution of Visual Attention', Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, W.: 1890, Principles of Psychology, New York: Henry Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jemel, B., N. George, L. Chaby, N. Fiori, and B. Renault: 1999, 'Differential Processing of Part-to-Whole and Part-to-Part Face Priming: An ERP Study', NeuroReport 10, 1069–1075.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johansson, G: 1973, 'Visual Perception of Biological Motion and aModel for its Analysis', Perception & Psychophysics 14, 201–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, M.H., S. Dziurawiec, H. Ellis, and J. Morton: 1991, 'Newborns' Preferential Tracking of Face-Like Stimuli and its Subsequent Decline', Cognition 40, 1–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D. and A. Henik: 1981, 'Perceptual Organization and Attention', in M. Kubovy and J. Pomerantz (eds.), Perceptual Organization, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 181–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D. and A. Treisman: 1984, 'Changing Views of Attention and Automaticity' in R. Parasuraman & D.R. Davies (eds.), Varieties of Attention, New York: Academic Press, pp. 29–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahneman, D., A. Treisman, and B.J. Gibbs: 1992, 'The Reviewing of Object Files: Object-Specific Integration of Information', Cognitive Psychology 24, 174–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanizsa, G. and G. Tampieri: 1976, 'Environmental and Retinal Frames of Reference in Visual Perception', Italian Journal of Psychology 3, 317–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, R., C. McManus, and T. Pigott: 1990, 'Sensitivity to the Displacement of Facial Features in Negative and Inverted Images', Perception 19, 531–543.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, R., G. Pike, P. White, and A. Musselman: 1996, 'Perception and Recognition of Normal and Negative Faces: The Role of Shape from Shading and Pigmentation Cues', Perception 25, 37–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, R., A. Kingstone, and A. Pontefract: 1992, 'Orienting of Visual Attention', in K. Rayner (ed.), EyeMovements and Visual Cognition: Scene Perception and Reading, New York: Springer, pp. 46–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lansing, C.R. and G.W. McConkie: 1999, 'Attention to Facial Regions in Segmental and Prosodic Visual Speech Perception Tasks', Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 42, 526–539.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, M.B. and R.A. Johnston: 1997, 'Familiarity, Target Set and False Positives in Face Recognition', European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 9, 437–459.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, C.H., C.A. Collin, A.M. Burton, and A. Chaudhuri: 1999, 'Lighting Direction Affects Recognition of Untextured Faces in Photographic Positive and Negative', Vision Research 39, 4003–4009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miyakawa, T.: 1950, 'Experimental Research on the Structure of Visual Space When We Bend Forward and Look Backward between the Spread Legs', Japan Journal of Psychology 20, 14–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murase, H. and S.K. Nayar: 1995, 'Visual Learning and Recognition of 3-D Objects from Appearance', International Journal of Computer Vision 14, 5–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neisser, U.: 1967, Cognitive Psychology, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neisser, U.: 1979, 'The Control of Information Pickup in Selective Looking', in A. Pick (ed.), Perception and its Development, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 201–219.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neisser, U. and R. Becklen: 1975, 'Selective Looking: Attending to Visually Specified Events', Cognitive Psychology 7, 480–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O'Craven, K., P. Downing, and N. Kanwisher: 1999, 'fMRI Evidence for Objects as the Units of Attentional Selection', Nature 401, 584–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oram, M.W. and D.I. Perrett: 1994, 'Responses of Anterior Superior Temporal Polysensory (STPa) Neurons to 'Biological Motion' Stimuli', Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 6, 99–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O'Regan, J.K., H. Deubel, J.J. Clark, and R.A. Rensink: 2000, 'Picture Changes during Blinks: Looking without Seeing and Seeing without Looking', Visual Cognition 7, 191–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pashler, H.: 1988, 'Familiarity and Visual Change Detection', Perception & Psychophysics 44, 369–378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrett, D.I., A. Chitty, A. Mistlin, and H. Harries: 1985, 'Visual Cells Sensitive to Biological Motion', Behavioral Brain Research 16, 153–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poggio, T. and S. Edelman: 1990, 'A Network that Learns to Recognize Three-Dimensional Objects', Nature 343, 263–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M.I.: 1980, 'Orienting of Attention', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 32, 3–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M.I., C.R.R. Snyder, and B.J. Davidson: 1980, 'Attention and the Detection of Signals', Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 109, 160–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pylyshyn, Z.W.: 1989, 'The Role of Location Indexes in Spatial Perception: A Sketch of the FINST Spatial Index Model', Cognition 32, 65–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pylyshyn, Z.W.: 1994, 'Some Primitive Mechanisms of Spatial Attention', Cognition 50, 363–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pylyshyn, Z.W.: 2001, 'Visual Indexes, Preconceptual Objects, and Situated Vision', Cognition 80, 127–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pylyshyn, Z.W. and R.W. Storm: 1988, 'Tracking Multiple Independent Targets: Evidence for a Parallel Tracking Mechanism', Spatial Vision 3, 179–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran, V.S.: 1988, 'Perception of Shape from Shading', Nature 331, 163–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rensink, R.A.: 2000a, 'The Dynamic Representation of Scenes', Visual Cognition 7, 17–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rensink, R.A.: 2000b, 'Visual Search for Change: A Probe into the Nature of Attentional Processing', Visual Cognition 7, 345–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rensink, R.A.: 2000c, 'Seeing, Sensing, and Scrutinizing', Vision Research 40, 1469–1487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rensink, R.A., J.K. O'Regan, and J.J. Clark: 1995, 'Image Flicker is as Good as Saccades in Making Large Scene Changes Invisible', Perception 24(Suppl.), 26–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rensink, R.A., J.K. O'Regan, and J.J. Clark: 1997, 'To See or Not to See: The Need for Attention to Perceive Changes in Scenes', Psychological Science 8, 368–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rock, I.: 1956, 'The Orientation of Forms on the Retina and in the Environment', American Journal of Psychology 69, 513–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rock, I.: 1973, Orientation and Form, New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scholl, B.J., Z.W. Pylyshyn, and S.L. Franconeri: 2001, 'The Relationship between Property-Encoding and Object-Based Attention: Evidence from Multiple Object Tracking', submitted.

  • Searcy, J.H. and J.C. Bartlett: 1996, 'Inversion and Processing of Component and Spatial-Relational Information in Faces', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 22, 904–915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sears, C.R. and Z.W. Pylyshyn: 2000, 'Multiple Object Tracking and Attentional Processing', Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology 54, 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shore, D.I. and R.M. Klein: 2000, 'The Effects of Scene Inversion on Change Blindness', The Journal of General Psychology 127, 27–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simoncelli, E.P. and B.A. Olshausen: 2001, 'Natural Image Statistics and Neural Representation', Annual Review of Neuroscience 24, 1193–1216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simons, D.J. and C.F. Chabris: 1999, 'Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events', Perception 28, 1059–1074.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simons, D.J. and D.T. Levin: 1998, 'Failure to Detect Changes to People during a Real-World Interaction', Psychnomic Bulletin and Review 5(4), 644–649.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, M. and B.J. Scholl: 2000, 'Using Attentional Cueing to Explore Part Structure', Poster presented at the 2000 Pre-Psychonomics Object Perception and Memory Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

  • Singh, M., G. Seyranian, and D.D. Hoffman: 1999, 'Parsing Silhouettes: The Short-Cut Rule', Perception & Psychophysics 61, 636–660.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thouless, R.H.: 1947, 'The Experience of 'Upright' and 'Upside-Down' in Looking at Pictures', In I. Nuttih (ed.), Miscellanea Psychologica A. Michotte, Louvain: Institut Superieur de Philosophie, pp. 130–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tong, F., K. Nakayama, M. Moscovitch, O. Weinrib, and N. Kanwisher: 2000, 'Response Properties of the Human Fusiform Face Area', Cognitive Neuropsychology 17(1/2/3), 257–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treisman, A.: 1988, 'Features and Objects: The Fourteenth Bartlett Memorial Lectures', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 40, 201–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treisman, A.: 1993, 'The Perception of Features and Objects', in A. Baddeley and L. Weiskrantz (eds.), Attention: Selection, Awareness, and Control, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 5–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ullman, S. and R. Basri: 1991, 'Recognition by Linear Combination of Models', IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 13, 992–1006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ullman, S., E. Sali, and M. Vidal-Naquet: 2001, 'A Fragment-Based Approach to Object Representation and Classification', Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Visual Form, pp. 85–100.

  • Valentine, T.: 1988, 'Upside-Down Faces: A Review of the Effects of Inversion upon Face Recognition', British Journal of Psychology 79, 471–491.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watt, R.J.: 1988, Visual Processing: Computational, Psychophysical, and Cognitive Research, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, M.: 1996, 'Anger Recognition is Independent of Spatial Attention', New Zealand Journal of Psychology 25, 30–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, L.M., C. Senior, A.S. David, C.M. Loughland, and E. Gordon: 2001, 'In Search of the Duchenne Smile: Evidence from Eye Movements', Journal of Psychopathology 15, 122–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, P. and Simons, D.J.: 2000, 'Detecting Changes in Novel, Complex Three-Dimensional Objects', Visual Cognition 7, 297–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yin, R.K.: 1969, 'Looking at Upside-Down Faces', Journal of Experimental Psychology 81, 141–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. T. N. Davies
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. D. D. Hoffman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Davies, T.N., Hoffman, D.D. Facial Attention and Spacetime Fragments. Axiomathes 13, 303–327 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AXIO.0000007209.55057.56

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:AXIO.0000007209.55057.56

Keywords

Search

Navigation