 |
| Volume 3, Number 2, Article 4, Pages 161-170 |
doi:10.1167/3.2.4 |
http://journalofvision.org/3/2/4/ |
ISSN 1534-7362 |
Illumination encoding in face recognition: effect of position shift
Wendy L. Braje |
Department of Psychology, Plattsburgh State University, Plattsburgh, NY, USA |
|
Abstract
Recognition of faces and objects is impaired when illumination direction varies. Three experiments explore whether this impairment can be explained by display changes (Biederman & Bar, 1999), and whether cast shadows help or hinder face recognition. Observers judged whether two sequentially-presented faces, shown with or without cast shadows, were the same person. The faces were illuminated from the same or different directions, and were presented in the same or different positions on the screen. In Experiment 1, performance was illumination-dependent only on same-position trials, suggesting that observers used display changes. Experiment 2 tested whether this could be explained by peripheral viewing on different-position trials. A fixation cross cued each face's location, such that observers could move their eyes to view each face centrally. Performance was illumination-dependent regardless of whether position changed. In both experiments, shadows did not affect performance, in contrast to earlier findings (Braje, Kersten, Tarr, & Troje, 1998). In Experiment 3, all faces were presented peripherally without shadows. Changing the illumination direction did not affect performance. These results demonstrate that peripheral viewing, rather than display changes, can explain why changes in illumination direction do not affect performance when position changes. The results also suggest that face representations retain illumination information.
 |
|
History
Received May 9, 2002; published March 27, 2003
Citation
Braje, W. L. (2003). Illumination encoding in face recognition: effect of position shift.
Journal of Vision, 3(2):4, 161-170,
http://journalofvision.org/3/2/4/,
doi:10.1167/3.2.4.
Keywords
face recognition, object recognition, illumination, shadows, peripheral vision
for related articles by these authors
for papers that cite this paper |
Humans can effortlessly recognize faces and objects
under a wide variety of lighting conditions. However, changing something as
simple as the direction of illumination leads to complex changes in the face
image, including changes in shading gradients and in the shapes and
locations of
shadows. How do we recognize faces given these marked image variations? One
class of recognition models proposes that the visual system extracts
illumination-invariant features, such as edges (e.g., Biederman, 1987;
Marr & Nishihara,
1978). According to these models, recognition should not be affected by
variations in illumination direction because illumination direction is not
encoded in the stimulus representation. Image-based models, on the other hand,
propose that illumination direction is encoded in face and object
representations, either because it is too difficult to discount or because it
provides information useful for computing 3-D shape
( Bülthoff, Edelman, & Tarr, 1995; Gauthier & Tarr, 1997; Poggio & Edelman, 1990). These
models predict
that the encoding of illumination information will result in an impairment of
recognition performance when illumination direction varies.
Consistent with image-based
models, several studies have demonstrated that recognition of faces and
geometric objects is impaired by changes in illumination direction ( Braje, Kersten, Tarr, & Troje, 1998; Hill & Bruce, 1996; Tarr, Kersten, & Bülthoff, 1998; Troje & Bülthoff, 1998). These studies
employed a matching paradigm, in which two stimuli are presented sequentially
and observers determine whether they are the same or different, regardless of
changes in lighting. When two identical objects or faces are illuminated from
different directions, response time is typically slower than when they are
illuminated from the same direction. This increase in response time presumably
reflects the longer processing time needed for encoding illumination direction
and/or information closely linked to illumination direction, such as shading
patterns.
Recently, however, it has been suggested that
“display changes” can account for these findings ( Biederman & Bar, 1998, 1999; Nederhouser & Mangini,
2001; Nederhouser, Mangini, Biederman, Subramaniam,
& Vogels, 2001) . According to this
view, when two identical stimuli are illuminated from the same direction in a
matching task, observers can quickly determine that they are the same because
the stimulus display does not change. That is, observers can rely on
the absence
of any difference between the two stimuli to respond “same” very
quickly. However, when two otherwise-identical stimuli are illuminated from
different directions, the stimulus display does change (e.g. some previously
dark pixels become lighter). Further processing is then required in order to
determine whether this display change is due to different stimulus
identities or
to different illumination directions. According to this interpretation, it is
this additional processing that is responsible for the increase in
response time
for stimuli illuminated from different directions.
Biederman and Bar ( 1998, 1999) tested whether reliance on display
changes could account for findings of viewpoint-dependence in object
recognition. They used a matching paradigm in which two objects were shown from
the same or different viewpoints. Additionally, they shifted the
position of the
second object relative to the first, producing a display change for both same-
and different-viewpoint trials. Their results showed that there was little if
any cost associated with changes in viewpoint for objects differing in
non-accidental properties, demonstrating that viewpoint dependence disappears
when observers cannot rely on display changes in making same/different
judgments.
More recently, Nederhouser and Mangini (2001) and Nederhouser et al. (2001) examined whether
the use of display changes might also explain why changes in illumination
direction impair object recognition. They replicated Tarr et al.’s (1998) object-matching
experiment, in which the two sequentially-presented objects were illuminated
from the same or different directions. On half of the trials, they shifted the
position of the second object relative to the first. The results showed that
when the position of the two objects differed, changing the illumination
direction did not impair recognition. Biederman and
Bar’s 1998, 1999) and
Nederhouser et al.’s
(2001)
results suggest that previous findings of viewpoint- and illumination-dependent
object recognition could be explained by observers’ use of display
changes, rather than by the encoding of viewpoint and illumination information
in object representations.
However, other studies have suggested that display
changes may not account for viewpoint- and illumination-dependent recognition.
For example, in studies that demonstrate viewpoint dependence,
performance costs
typically increase as the angle of rotation between two objects increases. If
display changes were responsible for viewpoint-dependent performance, then
performance would not depend on the angle of rotation, since display changes
occur with all of the non-zero rotation angles used in these studies.
Moreover, some studies that have incorporated display
changes have still obtained viewpoint- and illumination-dependent
effects. In an
object-matching task, Hayward and Williams
(2000) varied the viewpoint and position of the two objects on each trial.
The latter manipulation produced display changes regardless of
whether viewpoint
changed, and yet performance was still viewpoint-dependent. Similarly, in
exploring illumination invariance with a face-matching task, Braje et al. (1998) included slight
variations in
the size and viewpoint of the faces, producing display changes regardless of
whether the illumination direction changed. Despite these display changes,
performance was impaired by changing the illumination direction.
Finally, studies have
demonstrated that changing the illumination direction impairs face- and
object-recognition in a naming task, in which observers learned to name stimuli
illuminated from one direction and were tested the next day with the same
stimuli illuminated from a new direction ( Braje et
al., 1998; Tarr et al., 1998). The
substantial delay between learning and testing makes it unlikely that observers
could rely on display changes, and yet performance was still impaired
by changes
in illumination direction.
The studies described above, however, only partially
address the issue of display changes. The variations used by Hayward and Williams (2000) and Braje et al. (1998) were not as large as those
used by Biederman and Bar ( 1998, 1999) or Nederhouser et al. (2001), and therefore
may not have been substantial enough to overcome reliance on display changes.
Additionally, the results of the naming studies address long-term
representations, but not the short-term representations tapped by matching
tasks.
The first goal of the present experiments, therefore,
was to examine whether display changes can explain why face recognition in
matching tasks is impaired when illumination direction changes. Nederhouser et al. has explored this issue
with regard to recognizing geometric objects, but face recognition might behave
differently. It has been argued that faces are a special class of objects and
therefore may not be subject to the same effects that Nederhouser et al. found. For example,
unlike the geometric objects used in other studies, faces are fairly similar in
their global shape, hue, and texture. Illumination information may therefore be
particularly important in the recovery of finer-scale characteristics
useful for
face recognition. Experiment 1 examines whether face recognition is subject to
the same effects found by Nederhouser et
al. with objects. Experiments 2 and 3 explore whether peripheral viewing,
rather than display changes, can explain why illumination direction does not
affect performance when position changes.
The second goal was to explore the impact of cast
shadows 1 on
recognition, as shadow shapes and
locations can change when illumination direction is varied. Shadows can
potentially affect recognition in two ways. They might hinder recognition,
either by masking informative features or by introducing spurious contours that
must be discounted prior to recognition. Alternatively, they could improve
recognition by providing information about illumination conditions or
3-D shape.
Studies examining the impact of shadows on recognition have yielded
inconsistent
results. Shadows impair recognition of faces ( Braje et al., 1998) and two-tone images of novel
objects ( Moore & Cavanagh, 1998). However,
they improve recognition of geometric objects ( Tarr
et al., 1998). And, Braje, Legge, and Kersten
(2000) found that they had no impact on recognition of familiar natural
objects (fruits and vegetables). Experiments 1
and 2 therefore further explore whether shadows help or hinder
recognition.
The aim of the first experiment was to determine
whether Nederhouser et al.’s
object recognition results extend to the domain of faces. Observers viewed two
sequentially-presented faces and decided whether they were the same person. The
two faces were illuminated from the same or different directions on each trial,
and could appear in the same or different positions on the screen (as in Nederhouser et al.’s
experiments). If
Nederhouser et al.’s
findings with
geometric objects extend to the domain of faces, then changing the illumination
direction should impair performance only when the two faces are
presented in the
same position.
The presence of shadows was
also varied. Previous findings provide no consistent predictions regarding the
effect of shadows, particularly when stimulus position changes. However, the
results of the most comparable study ( Braje et
al., 1998) suggest that shadows should impair face recognition.
Thirty undergraduate introductory psychology students
(ages 18 to 25) at Plattsburgh State
University participated for class credit. All had normal or
corrected-to-normal visual acuity. The observers were not familiar with the
people whose faces were used as stimuli. All research reported here
followed the
tenets of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki,
and informed consent was obtained from all participants after
explanation of the
nature and possible consequences of the study. The research was approved by the
Plattsburgh State University
institutional review board.
The stimuli were full-color faces obtained from 3-D
models of 80 real human heads ( Troje &
Bülthoff, 1996). They were the same faces used by Braje et al. (1998).
The stimuli were obtained from an early version of the face database provided by the Max-Planck Institute for Biological
Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany. The faces measured about 150 pixels
from ear to ear and 215 pixels from the neck to the top of the
forehead. They were rendered from two
viewpoints (7° and 11° with respect to the frontal view), and in two
sizes (7.9° × 9.5° and 8.5° × 10.3°), for reasons
discussed in the Procedure. The faces
were illuminated from 45° above and 45° to the right or left of the
viewing axis, and they were rendered with and without cast shadows (the faces
always contained attached shadows). Figure
1 shows examples of the faces in
these different rendering conditions. A 256 × 256-pixel (14.6° ×
14.6°) collage of face features—eyes, noses, mouths, and
ears—was used as a mask. The face features were taken from the different
renderings of the 80 faces.
Figure 1 . One face rendered from a 7° viewpoint with
left/right
illumination and with/without cast shadows.
The experiment was run on an Apple iMac using RSVP
software ( Williams & Tarr, 1999). The
faces were presented on a black background on a 640 × 480-pixel
(36.5°
× 27.4°) Apple 15-inch color monitor. They were viewed from
a distance
of 45 cm.
The faces were each presented at one of nine screen
positions, arranged in a 3 × 3 matrix. The nine positions were equally
spaced, separated by 160 pixels (9.1°) horizontally and 120 pixels
(6.8°) vertically.
A sequential matching paradigm was used (see Figure 2). On each trial, a fixation cross was
presented in the center of the screen for 500 msec. One face was then presented
in one of the nine positions for 200 msec, followed by the mask for 750 msec, a
second face for 100 msec, and finally the mask for 500 msec. This is the same
timing sequence used by Braje et al. (1998),
Nederhouser et al. (2001), and Tarr et al. (1998). The two faces could be
illuminated from the same or different directions, and could appear in the same
or different positions on the screen. The mask was always presented in the same
position as the face preceding it. The observer’s task was to decide
whether the two faces were the same person or not, regardless of changes in
illumination or position, and to respond by pressing one of two keys on a
keyboard. Feedback was not provided. Responses occurring before the
onset of the
second face were excluded from the data analysis. 2Figure 2 . Matching paradigm
showing a same-face
same-illumination different-position
trial. Movie 1
demonstrates this presentation sequence.
Movie
1. Presentation sequence from Experiment
1.
Each observer completed a 10-trial practice block,
followed by four blocks of 128 experimental trials. In each block,
there were an
equal number of same- and
different-illumination
trials, an equal number of same- and
different-face trials, and an equal
number of same- and
different-position
trials, all presented in random order. Cast shadows were present for 13
observers and absent for 17 observers.
For each presentation of each image, the viewpoint and
size were randomly chosen from among those described in the
Stimuli section. This prevented
observers from simply matching images for size, silhouette, or local image
features.
Response time was measured as the time between the
onset of the second face and the observer’s key-press. Observers were
allowed up to 5 seconds to respond. Only correct responses were included in the
overall calculation of response times.
Sensitivity (d′) was calculated using the
z-scores for the correct responses on
same-face trials (hits) and the
incorrect responses on different-face
trials (false alarms): d′ = z fa – z hit. Hit
rates of 1.0 and false-alarm rates of 0.0 were modified by half a trial,
resetting them respectively to .984 and .016 ( Macmillan & Creelman, 1991).
Sensitivity and median response time were analyzed
using an ANOVA. The factors were block, illumination (same/different), position
(same/different), and cast shadows (present/absent); additionally, face
(same/different) was a factor in the analysis of response times. Significant
effects were further analyzed using Tukey’s HSD test.
The results are presented in Figure 3. For
same-face trials, changing the
illumination direction slowed median response time; however, this occurred only
when the two faces were displayed in the same position (F(1,24)=4.46,
p<.05 for the
face x
illumination ×
position interaction; Tukey HSD
α=.01). In this condition, response time was 29 msec slower when the
illumination direction changed. Thus, Nederhouser et al.’s object
recognition results do appear to extend to the domain of face recognition. The
results are consistent with the suggestion that, when deciding whether two
stimuli are the same or different, observers rely on display changes, rather
than on illumination-dependent representations. Experiments 2 and 3
explore this
interpretation
further. Figure 3 . Response time
( same-face trials) and sensitivity in
Experiment 1. Error bars show standard errors. Accuracy was 70% for
different-illumination trials and 74% for same-illumination trials.
Sensitivity was not affected by changes in
illumination
direction, with d′=0.94 for
different-illumination trials and
d′=1.01 for same-illumination
trials. Observers tended to perform better on
same-illumination trials, but the
difference was not statistically significant (F(1,24)=1.73,
p>.10). 3
Sensitivity was lower for
different-position trials
(d′=0.83) than for same-position
trials (d′=1.12) (F(1,24)=22.41,
p<.01). The lower
sensitivity in the
different- position
condition may indicate that the data were simply too noisy to reveal any
differences between same- and
different-illumination response times.
If sensitivity were higher in the
different- position
condition, an effect of illumination may become evident. 4 This possibility was
examined by analyzing
(with an ANOVA) the response times for the
different-position
condition, but using
only the response times from the conditions that yielded a d′ at least as
high as the average d′ for the
same-position condition (i.e.
d′≥1.12). The results of this analysis showed that there was still
no difference between same- and
different-illumination response times
(F(21,1)=1.66, p>.10); therefore,
even when sensitivities are equated, the
same-illumination advantage is seen
only for
same- position
trials.
Finally, the presence of shadows did not affect
response time or sensitivity, even when the faces were in the same position.
This finding stands in contrast to Braje et
al.’s (1998) results (Experiment 1), in which the presence of shadows
increased response time by 127 msec. The present experiments differed from Braje et al. (1998) only in the addition of a
possible position shift between the two faces, and it therefore appears that
processing of shadows is affected by this added positional uncertainty. This
issue is considered in the General
Discussion.
The results of Experiment 1 are consistent with the
suggestion that display changes, rather than illumination encoding, were
responsible for slower performance on
different- illumination
trials. However, Experiment 1, as well as Nederhouser et al. (2001), employed a
procedure that required observers to move their eyes to the second
stimulus when
it was presented in a different position from the first stimulus. Moving the
eyes to a known position requires about 250 msec ( Rayner, 1978). Given that the second face
appeared for only 100 msec, and that the observers did not know where it would
appear, it is likely that the second face was seen primarily with peripheral
vision on the different-position
trials. On the other hand, on the
same-position trials,
observers did not
need to move their eyes to the second face, and therefore could view it using
central vision. Viewing stimuli peripherally is problematic because faces, like
many other stimuli, are not processed as efficiently in peripheral vision as in
central vision ( Hübner, Rentschler, &
Encke, 1985; Levy et al., 2001; Mäkelä, Näsänen, Rovamo, &
Melmoth, 2001; Melmoth, Kukkonen,
Mäkelä, & Rovamo, 2000). The ability to process important
information, such as high spatial frequencies, detailed shading gradients, and
spatial phase declines in the periphery, and faces must typically be scaled in
size and/or contrast in order to equate central and peripheral performance.
Without any such scaling, information that is useful for recognizing faces and
processing illumination direction is degraded in peripheral vision. It is
therefore not surprising that the pattern of results differed in the
same- and
different-position conditions. 5
Experiment 2 eliminated the
problem of peripheral presentation by cueing each face’s location with a
500-msec fixation cross. This procedure maintains the presence of a display
change, but allows observers time to move their eyes to the new stimulus
position. Both the first and second faces were therefore viewed using central
vision. If peripheral viewing is responsible
for the illumination-invariant performance in the
different-position condition of
Experiment 1, then changing the illumination direction should impair
performance
on both same- and
different-position trials in
Experiment
2.
Thirty-six undergraduate introductory psychology
students (ages 18 to 20) at Plattsburgh State University participated for class
credit. 6 None had
participated in Experiment 1.
All had normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity. The observers were not
familiar with the people whose faces were used as stimuli.
Stimuli, Apparatus,
and Procedure
The stimuli and apparatus were identical to those used
in Experiment 1. The procedure differed only in that two fixation crosses were
presented, one before each face. Each fixation cross was displayed for 500 msec
and was shown in the same position as the center of the subsequent face. Movie 2 demonstrates this presentation sequence
for a same-face
same-illumination different-position trial. Shadows were present for 20
observers and absent for 16 observers. All other procedures were identical to
those used in Experiment
1. Movie 2.
Presentation sequence from Experiment 2.
The results are presented in Figure 4. For
same-face trials, changing the
illumination direction slowed median response time by 22 msec (F(1,30)= 8.05,
p<.01). Unlike the results of
Experiment 1, however, this illumination impairment occurred for both
same- and
different-position trials
(F(1,30)=0.15, p>.10 for the
illumination ×
position interaction).
Figure 4 . Response time
( same-face trials) and sensitivity in
Experiment 2. Error bars show standard errors. Accuracy was 80% for
different-illumination trials and 86%
for same-illumination trials.
Sensitivity was also reduced by changing the
illumination direction, with d′=1.94 for
different-illumination trials and d′=2.09 for
same-illumination trials
(F(1,30)=2.86,
p<.05). As with response time, this
impairment occurred for both same- and
different-position
trials (F(1,30)=1.03, p>.10 for the
illumination ×
position
interaction).
These findings demonstrate that the use of display
changes does not account for the illumination effects found in Experiment 1.
When observers are given time to shift their eyes to the second face so that it
can be viewed centrally, changing the illumination direction impairs
performance
regardless of changes in stimulus position.
The presence of shadows did not affect
response time or
sensitivity, as in Experiment 1. This finding is considered further in the General Discussion.
The results of Experiment 2 suggest that the
position-dependent illumination effects found in Experiment 1 were
the result of
peripheral viewing, rather than display changes. Although the results are
consistent with this interpretation, Experiment 2 did not directly test whether
peripheral viewing eliminates illumination effects, since all faces were
(presumably) seen with central vision. Experiment 3 therefore examined the
effect of peripheral viewing on face recognition. The procedure was
identical to
that used in Experiment 2 except that all faces were presented in the
periphery.
If central viewing is necessary in order for illumination dependence to occur,
then changing the illumination direction should not affect performance in this
experiment.
Three experienced psychophysical observers
participated. None had participated in Experiments 1 or 2, and all
had normal or
corrected-to-normal visual acuity. The observers were not familiar with the
people whose faces were used as stimuli, although one observer (the author) was
familiar with the stimulus set in general.
Stimuli, Apparatus, and Procedure
The stimuli, apparatus, and procedure were
identical to
those used in Experiment 2 except for the following: 1) A central
fixation cross
was presented at the beginning of each trial 500 msec before the fixation cross
that cued the first face. The central fixation cross remained on the screen
throughout the trial. Observers were instructed to maintain central fixation at
all times. 2) Only eight of the nine possible stimulus positions were used;
faces were never presented in the center of the screen. 7 The inner edge of each
face (i.e., the edge
closest to the center of the screen) was presented at least
2° from the central fixation cross. 3) On any
given trial, the two faces were always presented in the same position, as this
provides the most direct test of whether display changes were being
used. 4) All
stimuli were presented without cast shadows. Movie 3 demonstrates the presentation sequence
for a same-face
same-illumination
trial. Movie
3. Presentation sequence from Experiment
3.
For same-face
trials, changing the illumination direction had no significant effect on median
response time (F(1,2)=0.03, p>.10
for the face ×
illumination interaction), with
response times differing by only 6 msec. Sensitivity was also unaffected by
changing the illumination direction, with d′=1.03
for different-illumination trials and
d′=1.16 for same-illumination
trials (F(1,2)=4.69, p>.10). These
results demonstrate that peripheral viewing, rather than display changes, can
explain why illumination dependence is eliminated by changing the stimulus
position. Provided that stimuli are viewed with central vision, it appears that
illumination direction is encoded in face representations.
Why is illumination direction not encoded in
representations of peripherally-presented faces? One possibility is that such
representations are noisier than are the representations of centrally-presented
faces. It may be too difficult to obtain reliable estimates of illumination
direction, or of information that varies with illumination direction, from a
peripherally-presented face. An alternative explanation is that peripheral
presentation degrades high spatial-frequency information needed for recognizing
faces ( Fiorentini, Maffei, & Sandini,
1983). The information that is lost may include information closely linked
to illumination direction. For example, changing the illumination direction
will have an impact on shading gradients that are useful for recovering the
finer-scale shapes and features of a face. This detailed information would be
particularly important for face recognition, as faces may be coded using a more
precise, metric mechanism than other objects
( Cooper & Wojan, 2000; Diamond & Carey, 1986). If
illumination-dependent high-frequency information is eliminated as a result of
peripheral presentation, then it can no longer be encoded by the observer.
Illumination direction would therefore have little or no effect on recognition,
as was found in the present experiment.
The first main finding in the present studies is that
face recognition was found to be sensitive to changes in illumination
direction.
When observers were able to view both of the faces using central vision
(Experiment 2), changing the illumination direction impaired performance even
when display changes were presumably eliminated by presenting the faces in
different positions. Experiment 3 further demonstrated that peripheral viewing
was likely responsible for the position-dependent illumination effects found in
Experiment 1, and it may also explain Nederhouser et al.’s (2001) object
recognition findings. The results suggest that display changes may not account
for previous findings of illumination dependence in object- and
face-recognition, and that illumination information is preserved in face
representations. The results are consistent with the findings of Braje et al. (1998) for faces and Tarr et al. (1998) for geometric
objects, and they
lend further support to image-based models of recognition.
The results also demonstrate that, at least under the
current experimental conditions, face recognition behaves in a manner
similar to
object recognition, i.e. both are sensitive to changes in illumination. It is
often argued that faces are a “special” category of stimuli, and
that they are processed by a specialized face-recognition system. Supporting
this view are neuroimaging studies suggesting the existence of neural regions
that respond selectively to faces (e.g. Kanwisher, McDermott, & Chun,
1997; McCarthy,
Puce, Gore, & Allision, 1997; Puce, Allison,
Gore, & McCarthy, 1995; Sergent, Ohta, & McDonald, 1992). Others
have argued that faces are recognized in the same manner as other complex
objects, by a more general recognition system (e.g. de Gelder & Rouw, 2001; Gauthier et al., 2000; Gauthier, Behrmann, & Tarr, 1999; Gauthier, Skudlarski, Gore, & Anderson,
2000). The present results are consistent with the latter view,
demonstrating one situation in which image information is processed in the same
way for faces as for other objects.
The second main result in these experiments is that
cast shadows did not affect recognition. Even when the two faces were presented
in the same position, shadows had no impact. It is possible that
shadows are not
particularly helpful for recognizing faces because faces are a
familiar class of
stimuli. This is consistent with the finding that shadows do not affect
recognition of familiar natural objects ( Braje et
al., 2000). However, it is inconsistent with Braje et al.’s (1998) finding that shadows
impaired face recognition in a matching paradigm that was nearly identical to
the present experiments in stimuli and procedures. The only difference here is
that the position of the stimuli was varied.
Why might shadow processing be influenced by position
changes? It is possible that added positional uncertainty increased the task
difficulty in the present experiments – response time was longer and
sensitivity lower than in Braje et al.
(1998).
This increased difficulty could influence shadow processing in at least two
ways. First, it has been suggested that identification of shadows
requires extra
time and is not a primary process involved in recognition ( Moore & Engel, 2001; Rock, Shallo, & Schwartz, 1978; Rock et al., 1982). If a task is not overly
demanding, observers may devote resources to identifying shadows in the image,
either to discount them or to extract and make use of them. This process would
be reflected in longer response times for images containing shadows
(as found by
Braje et al., 1998). However, when task
difficulty increases, observers might allocate resources to processes
other than
shadow identification. Shadows would then have a reduced impact on performance,
as was found in the present experiments. A second possibility is that shadows
normally hinder performance by masking informative features. When task
difficulty is increased by including position changes, however,
observers may be
forced to rely on different stimulus information, or a reduced amount of
information. Shadows would then have little impact because they mask
information
that is no longer being used. Further research is necessary in order to
determine why positional uncertainty affects shadow processing.
In summary, the results demonstrate that face
recognition is sensitive to changes in illumination, even when position varies.
The findings suggest that illumination information is encoded in face
representations, and they provide further support for image-based models of
recognition. The results also demonstrate that cast shadows do not affect face
recognition when position varies. The role of shadows in recognition is still
poorly understood, and the present findings underscore the need for further
exploration of this issue.
I am grateful to Elizabeth Amati, Shelley Fracalossi,
and Sara Nephew for their assistance in data collection, and to J. Stephen
Mansfield and Bosco Tjan for their helpful suggestions. Commercial
relationships: none.
The term “shadows” will be used to refer to “cast
shadows” throughout the paper.
2
Four observers’ data were excluded from the analysis in Experiment 1:
three observers responded before the onset of the second face more than 35% of
the time, and one observer achieved 0% accuracy in one condition.
Three of these
observers were in the shadow condition
and one was in the no-shadow
condition.
The exclusion of these data did not alter the nature of the results or
conclusions.
Several other significant effects were found in the three experiments. In
Experiments 1 and 2, the main effect of
block was significant
(p<.01), with observers becoming
faster and more sensitive over blocks. This effect was significant for response
time but not sensitivity in Experiment 3. There was a main effect of
position on sensitivity and response
time in Experiment 2 (p<.05), with
better performance on same-position
trials. The block ×
face interaction was significant
(p<.05) for response time in
Experiment 1; observers were faster on
same-face trials only in the first
block. Finally, in Experiment 2, the
face ×
illumination interaction was
significant (p<.01), with
illumination changes impairing performance only for
same-face trials.
I thank an anonymous reviewer for raising this possibility.
A similar argument may be made in the case of attention. Shifting
attention from
one object to another requires at least 150 msec ( Ward, 2001), and so the second face
likely received
less attention on the
different-position trials. However,
since lighting direction has been shown to be processed preattentively ( Enns & Rensink, 1990), this is not
likely to be
an issue here.
Four observers’ data were excluded from the analysis in Experiment 2
because they responded before the onset of the second face more than 24% of the
time. Three of these observers were in the
shadow condition and one was in the
no-shadow condition. The exclusion of
these data did not alter nature of the results or conclusions.
Including a central position made it too difficult to maintain fixation because
centrally-presented faces covered the central fixation cross.
Biederman,
I. (1987). Recognition-by-components: A theory of human image understanding.
Psychological Review,
94, 115-147. [PubMed]
Biederman,
I., & Bar, M. (1998). Same-different matching of depth rotated objects
[Abstract]. Investigative Ophthalmology and
Visual Science, 39(4),
S1113.
Biederman,
I., & Bar, M. (1999). One-shot viewpoint invariance in matching novel
objects. Vision Research,
39(17), 2885-2899. [PubMed]
Braje, W.
L., Kersten, D., Tarr, M. J., & Troje, N. F. (1998). Illumination
effects in
face recognition. Psychobiology,
26(4), 371-380.
Braje, W. L., Legge,
G. E., &
Kersten, D. (2000). Invariant recognition of natural objects in the presence of
shadows. Perception,
29, 383-398.
[PubMed]
Bülthoff,
H. H., Edelman, S. Y., & Tarr, M. J. (1995). How are three-dimensional
objects represented in the brain? Cerebral
Cortex, 5(3), 247-260. [PubMed]
Cooper, E. E., &
Wojan, T. J.
(2000). Differences in the coding of spatial relations in face identification
and basic-level object recognition. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26,
470-488. [PubMed]
de Gelder, B., & Rouw, R.
(2001). Beyond localisation: a dynamical dual route account of face
recognition.
Acta Psychologica,
107, 183-207. [PubMed]
Diamond, R., & Carey, S.
(1986). Why faces are and are not special: An effect of expertise.
Journal of Experimental Psychology:
General, 115, 107-117.
Enns, J. T., & Rensink, R. A.
(1990). Influence of scene-based
properties on visual search. Science,
247(4943) ,
721-723. [PubMed]
Fiorentini, A., Maffei, L.,
& Sandini, G. (1983). The role of high spatial frequencies in face
perception. Perception, 12,
195-201. [PubMed]
Gauthier, I., &
Tarr, M. J.
(1997). Becoming a “greeble” expert: exploring mechanisms for face
recognition. Vision Research, 37(12),
1673-1682. [PubMed]
Gauthier, I., Behrmann, M.,
& Tarr, M. J. (1999). Can face recognition really be dissociated
from object
recognition? Journal of Cognitive
neuroscience, 11(4),
349-370.
Gauthier, I., Skudlarski, P.,
Gore, J. C., & Anderson, A. W. (2000). Expertise for cars and
birds recruits
brain areas involved in face recognition.
Nature
Neuroscience,
3(2) ,
191-197. [PubMed]
Gauthier, I., Tarr, M. J.,
Moylan, J., Anderson, A. W., Skudlarski, P., & Gore, J. C. (2000). Does
visual subordinate-level categorisation engage the functionally
defined fusiform
face area? Cognitive Neuropsychology,
17(1/2/3), 143-163.
Hayward, W.
G., & Williams, P. (2000). Viewpoint dependence and object
discriminability.
Psychological Science, 11(1), 7-12. [PubMed]
Hill, H., & Bruce, V. (1996).
Effects of lighting on the perception of facial surfaces.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance,
22(4), 986-1004.
[PubMed]
Hübner,
M., Rentschler, I., & Encke, W. (1985). Hidden-face recognition: comparing
foveal and extrafoveal performance. Human
Neurobiology, 4(1), 1-7. [PubMed]
Kanwisher,
N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. M. (1997). The fusiform face area:
A module in
human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception.
Journal of
Neuroscience,
17, 4302-4311.
[PubMed]
Levy, I., Hasson, U., Avidan, G.,
Hendler, T., & Malach, R. (2001). Center-periphery organization of human
object areas. Nature Neuroscience,
4(5), 533-539. [PubMed]
Macmillan, A.,
& Creelman,
C. D. (1991). Detection Theory: A
User’s
Guide. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
McCarthy, G., Puce, A., Gore,
J. C., & Allison, T. (1997). Face-specific processing in the human fusiform
gyrus. Journal of Cognitive
Neuroscience, 9, 605-610.
Marr, D., & Nishihara, H. K.
(1978). Representation and recognition of the spatial organization of
three-dimensional shapes. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Series B,
200, 269-294. [PubMed]
Mäkelä, P.,
Näsänen, R., Rovamo, J., & Melmoth, D. (2001). Identification of
facial images in peripheral vision. Vision
Research, 41(5), 599-610. [PubMed]
Melmoth, D. R.,
Kukkonen, H. T.,
Mäkelä, P. K., & Rovamo, J. M. (2000). The effect of contrast and
size scaling on face perception in foveal and extrafoveal vision.
Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual
Science, 41(9), 2811-2819. [PubMed]
Moore, C., & Cavanagh, P.
(1998). Recovery of 3D volume from 2-tone images of novel objects.
Cognition,
67, 45-71. [PubMed]
Moore, C., & Engel, S. A.
(2001). Mental models change rapidly with implicitly acquired information about
the local environment: A two-tone image study.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human
Perception and Performance,
27(5),
1211-1228. [PubMed]
Nederhouser, M., &
Mangini, M. (2001). A translation between S1 and S2 eliminates costs of changes
in the direction of illumination in object matching [Abstract].
Journal of Vision,
1(3), 92a, http://journalofvision.org/1/3/92,
DOI 10.1167/1.3.92. [ Abstract]
Nederhouser, M., Mangini,
M. C., Biederman, I., Subramaniam, S., & Vogels, R. (2001). Is object
recognition invariant to direction of illumination and direction of contrast?
[Poster]. 8th Joint Symposium on Neural Computation, La Jolla, CA. [Abstract]
Poggio, T., & Edelman, S.
(1990). A network that learns to recognize three-dimensional objects.
Nature,
343, 263-266.
[PubMed]
Puce, A., Allison, T.,
Gore, J. C.,
& McCarthy, G. (1995). Face-sensitive regions in human extrastriate cortex
studied by functional MRI. Journal of
Neurophysiology,
74(3), 1192-1199. [PubMed]
Rayner, K. (1978). Eye movements
in reading and information processing.
Psychological
Bulletin,
85(3) ,
618-660. [PubMed]
Rock, I.,
Shallo, J., & Schwartz, F. (1978). Pictorial depth and related constancy
effects as a function of recognition.
Perception,
7, 3-19. [PubMed]
Rock, I., Wheeler, D.,
Shallo, J.,
& Rotunda, J. (1982). The construction of a plane from pictorial
information. Perception,
11, 463-475.
[PubMed]
Sergent, J., Ohta, S., &
MacDonald, B. (1992). Functional neuroanatomy of face and object processing.
Brain,
115, 15-36. [PubMed]
Tarr, M. J., Kersten, D., &
Bülthoff, H. H. (1998). Why the visual recognition system might encode the
effects of illumination. Vision
Research, 38(15/16), 2259-2275.
[PubMed]
Troje, N. F., &
Bülthoff, H. H. (1996). Face recognition under varying poses: the role of
texture and shape. Vision Research,
36(12), 1761-1771. [PubMed]
Troje, N. F., &
Bülthoff, H. H. (1998) How is bilateral symmetry of human faces used for
recognition of novel views? Vision
Research, 38(1), 79-89. [PubMed]
Ward, R. (2001). Visual attention
moves no faster than the eyes. In K. Shapiro (Ed.),
The Limits of Attention (pp. 199-216).
New York: Oxford University Press.
|
|