Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection
The face is a special visual stimulus. Both bottom-up processes for low-level facial features and top-down modulation by face expectations contribute to the advantages of face perception. However, it is hard to dissociate the top-down factors from the bottom-up processes, since facial stimuli mandat...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2015-09-01
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| Series: | i-Perception |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669515606007 |
| _version_ | 1828953665158774784 |
|---|---|
| author | Kohske Takahashi Katsumi Watanabe |
| author_facet | Kohske Takahashi Katsumi Watanabe |
| author_sort | Kohske Takahashi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The face is a special visual stimulus. Both bottom-up processes for low-level facial features and top-down modulation by face expectations contribute to the advantages of face perception. However, it is hard to dissociate the top-down factors from the bottom-up processes, since facial stimuli mandatorily lead to face awareness. In the present study, using the face pareidolia phenomenon, we demonstrated that face awareness, namely seeing an object as a face, enhances object detection performance. In face pareidolia, some people see a visual stimulus, for example, three dots arranged in V shape, as a face, while others do not. This phenomenon allows us to investigate the effect of face awareness leaving the stimulus per se unchanged. Participants were asked to detect a face target or a triangle target. While target per se was identical between the two tasks, the detection sensitivity was higher when the participants recognized the target as a face. This was the case irrespective of the stimulus eccentricity or the vertical orientation of the stimulus. These results demonstrate that seeing an object as a face facilitates object detection via top-down modulation. The advantages of face perception are, therefore, at least partly, due to face awareness. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T07:15:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-dac2dea8982940aa9d658ee2d7dd7252 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-6695 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T07:15:22Z |
| publishDate | 2015-09-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | i-Perception |
| spelling | doaj.art-dac2dea8982940aa9d658ee2d7dd72522022-12-21T23:11:44ZengSAGE Publishingi-Perception2041-66952015-09-01610.1177/204166951560600710.1177_2041669515606007Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object DetectionKohske TakahashiKatsumi WatanabeThe face is a special visual stimulus. Both bottom-up processes for low-level facial features and top-down modulation by face expectations contribute to the advantages of face perception. However, it is hard to dissociate the top-down factors from the bottom-up processes, since facial stimuli mandatorily lead to face awareness. In the present study, using the face pareidolia phenomenon, we demonstrated that face awareness, namely seeing an object as a face, enhances object detection performance. In face pareidolia, some people see a visual stimulus, for example, three dots arranged in V shape, as a face, while others do not. This phenomenon allows us to investigate the effect of face awareness leaving the stimulus per se unchanged. Participants were asked to detect a face target or a triangle target. While target per se was identical between the two tasks, the detection sensitivity was higher when the participants recognized the target as a face. This was the case irrespective of the stimulus eccentricity or the vertical orientation of the stimulus. These results demonstrate that seeing an object as a face facilitates object detection via top-down modulation. The advantages of face perception are, therefore, at least partly, due to face awareness.https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669515606007 |
| spellingShingle | Kohske Takahashi Katsumi Watanabe Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection i-Perception |
| title | Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection |
| title_full | Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection |
| title_fullStr | Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection |
| title_full_unstemmed | Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection |
| title_short | Seeing Objects as Faces Enhances Object Detection |
| title_sort | seeing objects as faces enhances object detection |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2041669515606007 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kohsketakahashi seeingobjectsasfacesenhancesobjectdetection AT katsumiwatanabe seeingobjectsasfacesenhancesobjectdetection |