Reconsidering face specialization and face inversion

UnrestrictedInverted faces are recognized more slowly and less accurately than upright faces (Yin, 1969). Explanations of this deficit focus on the idea that upright faces are processed configurally or in a holistic/distributed manner, whereas inverted faces are processed in a part wise fashion. Many of the studies used to support this position, however, are confounded by individual differences in face discrimination ability, and a general lack of control over stimulus discriminability across conditions. Using a novel recognition paradigm that controls for individual differences in task difficulty, we show that subjects recognize upright and inverted faces in the same manner, making significantly greater use of configural information than part information. These findings contradict existing face recognition theories and also offer an explanation for other face inversion effects such as the Thatcher Effect (Thompson, 1980)