Abstract
Crowding (the disruption of object recognition in clutter) presents the fundamental limitation on peripheral vision. For simple objects, crowding is strong when target/flanker elements are similar and weak when they differ - a selectivity for target-flanker similarity. In contrast, the identification of upright holistically-processed face stimuli is more strongly impaired by upright than inverted flankers, whereas inverted face-targets are impaired by both - a pattern attributed to an additional stage of crowding selective for "holistic similarity" between faces. We propose instead that crowding is selective for target-flanker similarity in all stimuli, but that this selectivity is obscured by task difficulty with inverted face-targets. Using judgements of horizontal eye-position that are minimally affected by inversion, we find that crowding is strong when target-flanker orientations match and weak when they differ for both upright and inverted face-targets. By increasing task difficulty, we show that this selectivity for target-flanker similarity is obscured even for upright face-targets. We further demonstrate that this selectivity follows differences in the spatial order of facial features, rather than "holistic similarity" per se. There is consequently no need to invoke a distinct stage of holistic crowding for faces - crowding is selective for target-flanker similarity, even with complex stimuli such as faces.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 12556 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Scientific Reports |
Volume | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22 Aug 2018 |
Keywords
- PERIPHERAL-VISION
- SPATIAL INTERACTION
- EXTERNAL FEATURES
- UNFAMILIAR FACES
- RECOGNITION
- PERCEPTION
- AREA
- SELECTIVITY
- STIMULI
- CONFIGURATIONS