Holistic Processing of Static and Rigidly Moving Faces

Unlike most everyday objects, faces are processed holistically—they tend to be perceived as indecomposable wholes instead of a collection of independent facial parts. While holistic face processing has been demonstrated with a variety of behavioral tasks, it is predominantly observed with static faces. Here we investigated three questions about holistic processing of moving faces: (1) are rigidly moving faces processed holistically? (2) does rigid motion reduces the magnitudes of holistic processing? and (3) does holistic processing persist when study and test faces differ in terms of facial motion? Participants completed two composite face tasks (using a complete design), one with static faces and the other with rigidly moving faces. We found that rigidly moving faces are processed holistically. Moreover, the magnitudes of holistic processing effect observed for moving faces is similar to that observed for static faces. Finally, holistic processing still holds even when the study face is static and the test face is moving or vice versa. These results provide convincing evidence that holistic processing is a general face processing mechanism that applies to both static and moving faces. These findings indicate that rigid facial motion neither promotes partbased face processing nor eliminates holistic face processing. Funding: The study was supported by the Max Planck Society