The composite face effect is robust against perceptual misfit.

The composite face effect-the failure of selective attention toward a target face half-is frequently used to study mechanisms of feature integration in faces. Here we studied how this effect depends on the perceptual fit between attended and unattended halves. We used composite faces that were rated by trained observers as either a seamless fit (i.

External and internal facial features modulate processing of vertical but not horizontal spatial relations.

Some years ago an asymmetry was reported for the inversion effect for horizontal (H) and vertical (V) relational face manipulations (Goffaux & Rossion, 2007). Subsequent research examined whether a specific disruption of long-range relations underlies the H/V inversion asymmetry (Sekunova & Barton, 2008). Here, we tested how detection of changes in interocular distance (H) and eye height (V) depends on cardinal internal features and external feature surround.

The Two-Systems Account of Theory of Mind: Testing the Links to Social- Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities.

According to the two-systems account of theory of mind (ToM), understanding mental states of others involves both fast social-perceptual processes, as well as slower, reflexive cognitive operations (Frith and Frith, 2008; Apperly and Butterfill, 2009). To test the respective roles of specific abilities in either of these processes we administered 15 experimental procedures to a large sample of 343 participants, testing ability in face recognition and holistic perception, language, and reasoning. ToM was measured by a set of tasks requiring ability to track and to infer complex emotional and mental states of others from faces, eyes, spoken language, and prosody.

Culture beats gender? The importance of controlling for identity- and parenting-related risk factors in adolescent psychopathology.

This study analyzed the unique effects of gender and culture on psychopathology in adolescents from seven countries after controlling for factors which might have contributed to variations in psychopathology. In a sample 2259 adolescents (M = 15 years; 54% female) from France, Germany, Turkey, Greece, Peru, Pakistan, and Poland identity stress, coping with identity stress, maternal parenting (support, psychological control, anxious rearing) and psychopathology (internalizing, externalizing and total symptomatology) were assessed. Due to variations in stress perception, coping style and maternal behavior, these covariates were partialed out before the psychopathology scores were subjected to analyses of variance with gender and country as factors.

On Response Bias in the Face Congruency Effect for Internal and External Features.

Some years ago Cheung et al. (2008) proposed the complete design (CD) for measuring the failure of selective attention in composite objects. Since the CD is a fully balanced design, analysis of response bias may reveal potential effects of the experimental manipulation, the stimulus material, and/or attributes of the observers.

Object Localization Does Not Imply Awareness of Object Category at the Break of Continuous Flash Suppression.

In continuous flash suppression (CFS), a dynamic noise masker, presented to one eye, suppresses conscious perception of a test stimulus, presented to the other eye, until the suppressed stimulus comes to awareness after few seconds. But what do we see breaking the dominance of the masker in the transition period? We addressed this question with a dual-task in which observers indicated (i) whether the test object was left or right of the fixation mark (localization) and (ii) whether it was a face or a house (categorization). As done recently Stein et al.

From development to aging: Holistic face perception in children, younger and older adults.

Few published reports examine the development of holistic face processing across the lifespan such that face-specific processes are adequately differentiated from general developmental effects. To address this gap in the literature, we used the complete design of the composite paradigm (Richler & Gauthier, 2014) with faces and non-face control objects (watches) to investigate holistic processing in children (8-10years), young adults (20-32years) and older adults (65-78years). Several modifications to past research designs were introduced to improve the ability to draw conclusions about the development of holistic processing in terms of face-specificity, response bias, and age-related differences in attention.

Contextual Interactions in Grating Plaid Configurations Are Explained by Natural Image Statistics and Neural Modeling.

Processing natural scenes requires the visual system to integrate local features into global object descriptions. To achieve coherent representations, the human brain uses statistical dependencies to guide weighting of local feature conjunctions. Pairwise interactions among feature detectors in early visual areas may form the early substrate of these local feature bindings.

The Composite Effect Is Face-Specific in Young but Not Older Adults.

In studying holistic face processing across the life-span there are only few attempts to separate face-specific from general aging effects. Here we used the complete design of the composite paradigm (Cheung et al., 2008) with faces and novel non-face control objects (watches) to investigate composite effects in young (18-32 years) and older adults (63-78 years).

Contour integration with corners.

Contour integration refers to the ability of the visual system to bind disjoint local elements into coherent global shapes. In cluttered images containing randomly oriented elements a contour becomes salient when its elements are coaligned with a smooth global trajectory, as described by the Gestalt law of good continuation. Abrupt changes of curvature strongly diminish contour salience.

The preview benefit in single-feature and conjunction search: Constraints of visual marking.

Previewing distracters enhances the efficiency of visual search. Watson and Humphreys (1997) proposed that the preview benefit rests on visual marking, a mechanism which actively encodes distracter locations at preview and inhibits them afterwards at search. As Watson and Humphreys did, we used a letter-color search task to study constraints of visual marking in conjunction search and near-efficient single-feature search with single-colored and homogeneous distracter letters.

The sensitivity to replacement and displacement of the eyes region in early adolescence, young and later adulthood.

Recent evidence suggests a rather gradual developmental trajectory for processing vertical relational face information, lasting well into late adolescence (de Heering and Schlitz, 2008). Results from another recent study (Tanaka et al., 2014) indicate that children and young adolescents use a smaller spatial integration field for faces than do adults, which particularly affects assessment of long-range vertical relations.

Recanalization therapies in acute ischemic stroke patients: impact of prior treatment with novel oral anticoagulants on bleeding complications and outcome.

Background: We explored the safety of intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) or intra-arterial treatment (IAT) in patients with ischemic stroke on non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs, last intake <48 hours) in comparison with patients (1) taking vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) or (2) without previous anticoagulation (no-OAC).

Methods And Results: This is a multicenter cohort pilot study. Primary outcome measures were (1) occurrence of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in 3 categories: any ICH (ICHany), symptomatic ICH according to the criteria of the European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study II (ECASS-II) (sICHECASS-II) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) thrombolysis trial (sICHNINDS); and (2) death (at 3 months).

Cue combination anisotropies in contour integration: The role of lower spatial frequencies.

The combination of local orientation collinearity and spatial frequency contrast in contour integration was studied in two experiments using a 2AFC contour detection and discrimination task. Target contours were defined by local orientation collinearity, spatial frequency contrast between contour and background elements, or both cues. Experiments differed in the source of spatial frequency contrast by manipulating the spatial frequency of either contour or background elements.

Effects of Spatial Frequency Similarity and Dissimilarity on Contour Integration.

We examined the effects of spatial frequency similarity and dissimilarity on human contour integration under various conditions of uncertainty. Participants performed a temporal 2AFC contour detection task. Spatial frequency jitter up to 3.

Stress with parents and peers: how adolescents from 18 nations cope with relationship stress.

Background And Objectives: We investigated how adolescents from five regions around the world perceived and coped with parent- and peer-related stress.

Design: The study comprised N = 4957 adolescents (mean age of 15.2 years) from 18 countries.

The complete design in the composite face paradigm: role of response bias, target certainty, and feedback.

Some years ago an improved design (the "complete design") was proposed to assess the composite face effect in terms of a congruency effect, defined as the performance difference for congruent and incongruent target to no-target relationships (Cheung et al., 2008). In a recent paper Rossion (2013) questioned whether the congruency effect was a valid hallmark of perceptual integration, because it may contain confounds with face-unspecific interference effects.

Holistic face perception in young and older adults: effects of feedback and attentional demand.

Evidence exists for age-related decline in face cognition ability. However, the extents to which attentional demand and flexibility to adapt viewing strategies contribute to age-related decline in face cognition tests is poorly understood. Here, we studied holistic face perception in older (age range 65-78 years, mean age 69.

A slippery slope: estimated slant of hills increases with distance.

The slopes of hills tend to be greatly overestimated. Previous studies have found that slope estimates are significantly greater when estimated verbally than with a proprioceptive measure. It has yet to be determined whether these estimates are made for the entire extent of the slope, or whether the estimates in closest proximity are estimated using a different process.

Holistic processing and reliance on global viewing strategies in older adults' face perception.

There is increasing evidence that face recognition might be impaired in older adults, but it is unclear whether the impairment is truly perceptual, and face specific. In order to address this question we compared performance in same/different matching tasks with face and non-face objects (watches) among young (mean age 23.7) and older adults (mean age 70.

Development of visual systems for faces and objects: further evidence for prolonged development of the face system.

Background: The development of face and object processing has attracted much attention; however, studies that directly compare processing of both visual categories across age are rare. In the present study, we compared the developmental trajectories of face and object processing in younger children (8-10 years), older children (11-13 years), adolescents (14-16 years), and adults (20-37).

Methodology/principal Findings: We used a congruency paradigm in which subjects compared the internal features of two stimuli, while the (unattended) external features either agreed or disagreed independent of the identity of the internal features.

The face inversion effect in opponent-stimulus rivalry.

The face inversion effect is regarded as a hallmark of face-specific processing, and can be observed in a large variety of visual tasks. Face inversion effects are also reported in binocular rivalry. However, it is unclear whether these effects are face-specific, and distinct from the general tendency of visual awareness to privilege upright objects.

Integration of internal and external facial features in 8- to 10-year-old children and adults.

Investigation of whole-part and composite effects in 4- to 6-year-old children gave rise to claims that face perception is fully mature within the first decade of life (Crookes & McKone, 2009). However, only internal features were tested, and the role of external features was not addressed, although external features are highly relevant for holistic face perception (Sinha & Poggio, 1996; Axelrod & Yovel, 2010, 2011). In this study, 8- to 10-year-old children and adults performed a same-different matching task with faces and watches.

Is stress perceived differently in relationships with parents and peers? Inter- and intra-regional comparisons on adolescents from 21 nations.

This study investigated how adolescents (mean age of 15 years) from 21 countries perceived parent- and peer-related stress. Across countries, adolescents perceived parent-related stress at considerably greater levels than peer-related stress. Adolescents assigned to six geographical regions differed significantly in overall stress levels as well as in the disparity between perceived stress levels in the parent and peer domain.

Holistic face processing is induced by shape and texture.

There is increasing evidence that shape and texture are integral parts of face identity. However, it is less clear whether face-specific processing mechanisms are triggered by face shape alone, or if texture might play an important role. We address this question by studying mechanisms involved in holistic face processing.