CUNY Lehman College Faces Recognition Psychology Report

 What is the deal with faces? Is face processing special?

1. Faces are important- we see them a lot. 

Humans are social creatures

1. What, specifically, is the face inversion effect?

We remember faces when they are right side up better than other objects. We don’t recognize or remember faces as well when they are upside down. 

1. Face recognition are more affected by being inverted than other objects 
2. Previous Research
3. What previous research has been done about the face inversion effect? 

What has it taught us about the face inversion effect?

1. Yin 1969: 
2. (Feel free to put down your notes as you are researching- any cool studies you’ve found that might be of use to others?)
3. Argument against our paper: 

Diamond, R., & Carey, S. (1986). Why faces are and are not special: An effect of expertise. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 115(2), 107–117. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.115.2.107

1. The effects of race on facial recognition: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2001-14540-001?doi=1
2. Current Study

What- very broadly- do participants do in this study?  We’re attempting to replicate the face inversion effect by showing participants pictures of faces and houses that are either upright or inverted and seeing if they remember fewer inverted faces than inverted houses. 

What do we predict we will find in this study? We predict more errors for inverted than upright pictures; and that this will be particularly true for faces. 

Hypothesis 1 (Picture type): Faces > Houses

Hypothesis 2: (Picture orientation): Upright > Inverted

1. Hypothesis 3: (Interaction): Faces better upright; worse inverted

Methods: 

Who the participants were/how many there were

48 participants

The study phase: What was this? What stimuli were shown to the participants, and for how long? Did the participants need to do anything? 

1. Number of stimuli: 96 (half faces, half pictures; half upright, half inverted) (NOTE: If it was presented upright in study phase, it was presented upright in test phase)

Presented one at a time

Presented for 2 seconds

1. The test phase: What was this? What stimuli were shown to the participants, and for how long? Did the participants need to do anything? 

One old picture and one new picture

1. Presented until response was made
2. What data was collected during the test phase? 

RT

1. Errors (we will use this as our measure)
2. Results Data: 
3. # of Participants: 48

Descriptives: 

• Picture Type

Face

• House
• Picture Orientation

Upright

• Face-Upright
• Mean: 19.36
• SD: 12.94
• House-Upright

Mean: 38.54

• SD: 10.92
• Inverted
• Face-Inverted

Mean: 30

• SD: 12.36
• House-Inverted

Mean: 42.43

SD:9.60

Inferentials (ANOVA)

Main effect of Picture Type: 

F-statistic: 119.27

Between-subjects df: 47

Within-subjects df: 1

P-value: <0.001

“There is a main effect of Picture Type (F[1, 47] = 119.27, p<0.001) such that participants make more errors with pictures of houses than pictures of faces.”

Main effect of Picture Orientation: 

F-statistic: 25.24

Between-subjects df: 47

Within-subjects df: 1

P-value:<0.001

“There is a main effect of Picture Orientation….

Interaction of Picture Type and Picture Orientation:

F-statistic: 6.51

Between-subjects df: 47

Within-subjects df: 1

P-value: 0.014

“The is also a significant interaction of Picture Type and Picture Orientation such that…. 

Example text: “A two-way analysis of variance yielded a main effect for the diner’s gender, F(1,108) = 3.93, p < .05, such that the average tip was significantly higher for men (M = 15.3%, SD = 4.44) than for women (M = 12.6%, SD = 6.18). The main effect of touch was nonsignificant, F(1, 108) = 2.24, p > .05. However, the interaction effect was significant, F(1, 108) = 5.55, p < .05, indicating that the gender effect was greater in the touch condition than in the non-touch condition.”