Configural information is processed differently in perception and recognition of faces

Several previous studies have stressed the importance of processing configural information in face recognition. In this study the perception of configural information was investigated. Large overestimations were found when the eye?mouth distance and the intereye distance had to be estimated. Whereas configural processing is disrupted when inverted faces have to be recognized the perceptual overestimations persisted when faces were inverted. These results suggest that processing configural information is different in perceptual as opposed to recognition tasks