The Influence Of Contact Experience On Region Specificity In Face Recognition And Holistic Processing

People perceive faces in a holistic manner.The holistic processing of the face refers to the integration of various information of the face into a whole for perception.This whole is not a simple superposition of each part,but a perceptual system that selectively integrates various information on the face to form a whole characterization.Some studies have found that the increase in face contact experience will promote the holistic processing,and the information area will affect the intensity of the holistic processing,that is,compared with other areas,the eye area,as more important information,contributes more to the holistic processing,and holistic processing appears regional selectivityWith the increase of individual experience in face perception,people can quickly and accurately recognize familiar faces.Regarding how experience affects the face processing mechanism,experience-based holistic processing theory holds that with the increase of perceived experience,people are more inclined to use holistic processing when perceiving faces.The theory is based on the study of category experience,such as racial experience,age experience,etc.,can the experience-based holistic processing theory also explain people's recognition of familiar and strange faces?In other words,in addition to the experience at the category level,can different levels of individual experience in the same category have an impact on overall processing.This study mainly tests the theory,including the effect of individual-level experience on face recognition and holistic processing,and whether this effect is regionally specific.The results of Study 1 showed that(1)all participants had better recognition performance on familiar faces than unfamiliar faces,and the recognition effect on faces with 13 months of contact experience was greater,and the recognition effect on faces with 1 month of contact experience was smaller.(2)When the subject identified a face with 1 month of contact experience,there was no familiarity effect in recognizing eyes and mouth;while when the subject recognized a face with 13 months of contact experience,only a familiarity effect appeared when identifying the eye area.There is no familiarity effect on the mouth.(3)Subjects with 1 month and 13 months of contact experience on the face had less familiarity with identifying the face covering the eyes,and greater familiarity with identifying the face covering the mouth.(4)The performance of recognizing eyes and the recognition of intact faces when looking at the eyes are only significantly correlated when recognizing familiar faces,and the performance of recognizing mouths and recognizing intact faces when looking at mouths are not significantly correlated when recognizing familiar and strange faces.(5)Regardless of the recognition of familiar or unfamiliar faces,the performance of recognizing faces that cover eyes is significantly related to the performance of recognizing complete faces for gaze eyes,while the performance of recognizing faces that cover mouths is not significantly correlated with the recognition performance of recognizing complete faces at mouths.Study 2 used a tracking design to track participants with 1 month of contact experience in the cross-sectional study until the participants were familiar with their classmates for 13 months,and then conducted a second test on three experiments in Study 1.The results of Study 2 are consistent with the results of Study 1.(1)Participants performed better on recognizing familiar faces than on unfamiliar faces.(2)When recognizing classmates and unfamiliar faces that had been in contact for 1 month,subjects did not recognize the familiar effect of eyes and mouth;after conducting a second test on subjects for 12 months,the results showed that the subjects only identified Familiar effects occur in the eye area,and no familiar effects appear in the mouth.(3)After being tracked for 12 months,participants were less familiar with the effect of recognizing faces that covered their eyes,and had more familiar effects with recognizing faces that were covering their mouths.(4)The performance of individually identifying eyes and the performance of gazing eyes are significantly correlated when identifying strange and familiar faces,and the performance of individually identifying mouths and gazing the complete faces of mouths are only significantly correlated when identifying strange faces.(5)The performance of recognizing faces that cover eyes and the complete face recognition of gaze recognition are significantly related when recognizing unfamiliar and familiar faces,while the performance of recognizing faces that cover the mouth and recognizing complete faces by the mouth only recognize strange faces Time correlation is significant.In summary,this study found regional specificity in both face perception and holistic processing.Suggesting that the increase in contact experience integrates the information of multiple regions of the face centered on the eye region;this study supports the hypothesis that eye is the "expertise area",enriching the experience-based holistic processing theory.