Face identification in the near-absence of focal attention

• Published in: Vision research (Oxford) Vol. 46; no. 15; pp. 2336 - 2343
• Main Authors: Reddy, Leila, Reddy, Lavanya, Koch, Christof
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2006; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Activity levels. Psychomotricity; Adult; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Discrimination (Psychology); Dual-task paradigm; Face; Face identification; Famous faces; Famous Persons; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Perceptual Masking; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Recognition (Psychology); Vigilance. Attention. Sleep; Famous faces; Dual-task paradigm; Face identification; Attention; Human; Concurrent task; Stimulus familiarity; Identification; Face
• ISSN: 0042-6989; 1878-5646
• DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2006.01.020

In contrast to artificial geometric shapes, natural scenes and face-gender can be processed even when spatial attention is not fully available. In this study, we investigate whether a finer discrimination, at the level of the individual, is possible in the near-absence of focal attention. Using the paradigm, subjects performed face identification on faces of celebrities and relatively unfamiliar individuals, along with a task that is known to engage spatial attention. We find that face-identification performance is only modestly impaired under dual-task conditions. These results suggest that the visual system is well able to make complex judgments of natural stimuli, even when attention is not fully available.