Face Space: Facial dominance aftereffects exist and they are not sex-tuned.
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1
Southern Cross University, Psychology, Australia
Background
Interpreted for a long time as evidence for opponent processing, explanations of the mechanisms giving rise to aftereffects have matured to incorporate the observation that neurons seldom (if ever) are tuned for a single dimension: The array of neurons active in response to any stimulus captures a perceptual “space” describing the stimulus in the context of the observer’s experience. The dimensions of the space are reflected by the tuning properties of the neurons within it. In that context, prolonged adaptation to a stimulus alters the space such that subsequently presented stimuli are not "misperceived" as such, but perceived differently.
With that in mind, aftereffects can again be deployed to investigate perceptual spaces. In the experiments described here face-dominance aftereffects were used to explore the multi-dimensional “face space” described by Todorov et al. (2008). In that space Todorov suggests there are independent dimensions for social qualities like facial dominance and trustworthiness.
To better understand the dimension of dominance Experiment 1 was designed to discover if facial dominance cues give rise to “facial dominance” aftereffects: Can adaptation to a face at one point on the dominance dimension shift perceptions of subsequently viewed faces along the dimension? Experiment 2 was designed to explore the parameters of those effects. Specifically, Experiment 2 investigated whether or not facial dominance aftereffects are sex-tuned.
Methods
10 female and 10 male observers were used. Observers adapted to female or male faces that had features consistent with being "dominant", "neutral", or "non-dominant". They then judged neutral faces as "non-domiant" or "dominant" in a classic 2AFC paradigm. In every case (each adaptation/test pairing) different facial identities were used to reduce identity confounds.
In Experiment 1 adapting and test stimuli were always the same sex. In Experiment 2 same and opposite sex pairs were used as adapting and test stimuli.
Results
Experiment 1: Facial Dominance Aftereffects were observed. Adapting to a dominant face made a neutral face look less dominant. Adapting to a non-dominant face made a neutral face look more dominant.
Experiment 2: The magnitudes of Facial Dominance Aftereffects were not affected by the sex of the adaptation/test pairs. That is, the magnitudes of effects elicited by female-female or male-male pairs was equal the the magnitudes of effects elicited by female-male and male-female pairs.
Discussion
Facial dominance aftereffects can be elicited independent of identity. That is, facial dominance is explicitly encoded within the cortex and is not tied to specific facial configurations. Similarly, it is not tied to the sex of the face. These data suggest that facial dominance cues and facial sex cues may map independent dimensions in face space. Theoretical implications will be described.
References
Todorov, A., Said, C.P., Engell, A.D., Oosterhof, N.N. (2008) Understanding evaluation of faces on social dimensions. Trends In Cognitive Sciences, 12, 455 - 460.
Keywords:
facial dominance,
Aftereffects,
Social cues,
face space,
social neuroscience
Conference:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Clayton, Melbourne, Australia, 28 Nov - 1 Dec, 2013.
Presentation Type:
Oral
Topic:
Sensation and Perception
Citation:
Van Der Zwan
R,
Morris
E and
Brooks
A
(2013). Face Space: Facial dominance aftereffects exist and they are not sex-tuned..
Conference Abstract:
ACNS-2013 Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2013.212.00168
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Received:
15 Oct 2013;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2013.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Rick Van Der Zwan, Southern Cross University, Psychology, Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450, Australia, rick.vanderzwan@scu.edu.au