The role of surface pigmentation for recognition revealed by contrast reversal in faces and Greebles

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 45; no. 10; pp. 1213 - 1223
• Main Authors: Vuong, Quoc C., Peissig, Jessie J., Harrison, Marianne C., Tarr, Michael J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Color Perception; Face; Face recognition; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Learning. Memory; Lighting; Male; Memory; Object recognition; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Perception; Photic Stimulation - methods; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time; Recognition (Psychology); Shading; Surface Properties; Texture; Vision; Shading; Face recognition; Object recognition; Texture; Human; Recognition memory; Stimulus texture; Memory; Shadow; Experimental study; Contrast; Pigmentation; Surface; Visual stimulus; Matching task; Face; Categorization
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2004.11.015

Faces are difficult to recognize when viewed as negatives [Galper (1970). Recognition of faces in photographic negative. Psychonomic Science, 19, 207]. Here we examined the contribution of surface properties to this contrast effect, and whether it is modulated by object category. We tested observers in a matching task using faces or Greebles, presented with or without pigmentation. When stimulus pairs were shown with mismatched contrast (e.g., positive–negative), there was a decrement in performance. This decrement was larger when the stimuli were shown with pigmentation, and this difference was more pronounced with faces than with Greebles. Overall, contrast reversal disrupts the recognition of both faces and objects to a greater degree in the presence of pigmentation, suggesting that surface properties are important components of the object representation.