@article{audette_part-based_2025,

title = {Part-based processing, but not holistic processing, predicts individual differences in face recognition abilities},

author = {P. -L. Audette and L. Côté and C. Blais and J. Duncan and F. Gingras and D. Fiset},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85213575434&doi=10.1016%2fj.cognition.2024.106057&partnerID=40&md5=135d2ba1bdf18648b57db0d3a93d0628},

doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2024.106057},

issn = {00100277 (ISSN)},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Cognition},

volume = {256},

abstract = {This study aimed to assess the roles of part-based and holistic processing for face processing ability (FPA). A psychophysical paradigm in which the efficiency at recognizing isolated or combined facial parts was used (N = 64), and holistic processing was defined as the perceptual integration from multiple parts. FPA and object processing ability were measured using a battery of tasks. A multiple linear regression including three predictors, namely perceptual integration, part-based efficiency, and object processing, explained 40 % of the variance in FPA. Most importantly, our results reveal a strong predictive relationship between part-based efficiency and FPA, a small predictive relationship between object processing ability and FPA, and no predictive relationship between perceptual integration and FPA. This result was obtained despite considerable variance in perceptual integration skills–with some participants exhibiting a highly efficient integration. These results indicate that part-based processing plays a pivotal role in FPA, whereas holistic processing does not. © 2024 The Authors},

note = {Publisher: Elsevier B.V.},

keywords = {Adolescent, adult, article, face perception, face recognition, Facial Recognition, female, human, human experiment, Humans, Individual differences, Individuality, Integration efficiency, male, multiple linear regression analysis, physiology, psychology, Psychophysics, recognition, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{blais_conducting_2025,

title = {Conducting online visual psychophysics experiments: A replication assessment of two face processing studies},

author = {C. Blais and D. Fiset and L. Côté and V. Ledrou-Paquet and I. Charbonneau},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105004807446&doi=10.1016%2fj.visres.2025.108617&partnerID=40&md5=771b056e57c4d7a34ff7c56ce39a4bd2},

doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2025.108617},

issn = {00426989 (ISSN)},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Vision Research},

volume = {233},

abstract = {In vision sciences, researchers rigorously control the testing environment and the physical properties of stimuli, making it challenging to conduct visual perception experiments online. However, online research offers key advantages, including access to larger and more diverse participant samples, helping to address the problem of underpowered studies and to enhance the generalizability of results. In face recognition research, increasing diversity is essential, especially considering evidence that cultural and geographical factors influence basic visual face processing. The present study tested a new online platform, Pack & Go from VPixx Technologies, that supports experiments written in MATLAB and Python. Two face recognition experiments based on a data-driven psychophysical method involving real-time stimulus manipulation and relying on functions from the Psychtoolbox were tested. In Experiment 1, the visual information used for face recognition was compared across four conditions that gradually reduced experimental control over the testing environment and stimulus properties. In Experiment 2, the association between face recognition abilities and information utilization was measured online and compared to lab-based results. In both experiments, results obtained in the lab and online were highly similar, demonstrating the potential of online research for vision science. © 2025 The Author(s)},

note = {Publisher: Elsevier Ltd},

keywords = {adult, article, cultural factor, experiment, Facial Recognition, female, geography, human, human experiment, Humans, information processing, laboratory, male, normal human, online system, Photic Stimulation, photostimulation, physiology, procedures, psychology, Psychophysics, recognition, stimulus response, vision, visual stimulation, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{charbonneau_facial_2025,

title = {Facial expression categorization predominantly relies on mid-spatial frequencies},

author = {I. Charbonneau and J. Duncan and C. Blais and J. Guérette and M. -P. Plouffe-Demers and F. Smith and D. Fiset},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-105003427898&doi=10.1016%2fj.visres.2025.108611&partnerID=40&md5=19b14eb2487f220c3e41cbce28fa5287},

doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2025.108611},

issn = {00426989 (ISSN)},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Vision Research},

volume = {231},

abstract = {Facial expressions are crucial in human communication. Recent decades have seen growing interest in understanding the role of spatial frequencies (SFs) in emotion perception in others. While some studies have suggested a preferential treatment of low versus high SFs, the optimal SFs for recognizing basic facial expressions remain elusive. This study, conducted on Western participants, addresses this gap using two complementary methods: a data-driven method (Exp. 1) without arbitrary SF cut-offs, and a more naturalistic method (Exp. 2) simulating variations in viewing distance. Results generally showed a preponderant role of low over high SFs, but particularly stress that facial expression categorization mostly relies on mid-range SF content (i.e. ∼6–13 cycles per face), often overlooked in previous studies. Optimal performance was observed at short to medium viewing distances (1.2–2.4 m), declining sharply with increased distance, precisely when mid-range SFs were no longer available. Additionally, our data suggest variations in SF tuning profiles across basic facial expressions and nuanced contributions from low and mid SFs in facial expression processing. Most importantly, it suggests that any method that removes mid-SF content has the downfall of offering an incomplete account of SFs diagnosticity for facial expression recognition. © 2025 The Authors},

note = {Publisher: Elsevier Ltd},

keywords = {adult, article, Bubbles, Classification, controlled study, emotion, Emotions, Facial Expression, facial expressions, Facial Recognition, female, human, Humans, male, physiology, Psychophysics, simulation, Spatial frequencies, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{charbonneau_role_2021,

title = {The role of spatial frequencies for facial pain categorization},

author = {I. Charbonneau and J. Guérette and S. Cormier and C. Blais and G. Lalonde-Beaudoin and F. W. Smith and D. Fiset},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85111138273&doi=10.1038%2fs41598-021-93776-7&partnerID=40&md5=d759d0218de65fce371bb51d7f2593d8},

doi = {10.1038/s41598-021-93776-7},

issn = {20452322},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-01-01},

journal = {Scientific Reports},

volume = {11},

number = {1},

abstract = {Studies on low-level visual information underlying pain categorization have led to inconsistent findings. Some show an advantage for low spatial frequency information (SFs) and others a preponderance of mid SFs. This study aims to clarify this gap in knowledge since these results have different theoretical and practical implications, such as how far away an observer can be in order to categorize pain. This study addresses this question by using two complementary methods: a data-driven method without a priori expectations about the most useful SFs for pain recognition and a more ecological method that simulates the distance of stimuli presentation. We reveal a broad range of important SFs for pain recognition starting from low to relatively high SFs and showed that performance is optimal in a short to medium distance (1.2–4.8 m) but declines significantly when mid SFs are no longer available. This study reconciles previous results that show an advantage of LSFs over HSFs when using arbitrary cutoffs, but above all reveal the prominent role of mid-SFs for pain recognition across two complementary experimental tasks. © 2021, The Author(s).},

note = {Publisher: Nature Research},

keywords = {Adolescent, adult, Classification, Distance Perception, emotion, Emotions, Face, face pain, Facial Expression, Facial Pain, Facial Recognition, female, human, Humans, Knowledge, male, Normal Distribution, Pattern Recognition, procedures, psychology, Psychophysics, recognition, reproducibility, Reproducibility of Results, Visual, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{duncan_dual-task_2019,

title = {Dual-task interference on left eye utilization during facial emotion perception},

author = {J. Duncan and G. Dugas and B. Brisson and C. Blais and D. Fiset},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85068219081&doi=10.1037%2fxhp0000674&partnerID=40&md5=f432c0265348103d6fce87660baa4c18},

doi = {10.1037/xhp0000674},

issn = {00961523 (ISSN)},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance},

volume = {45},

number = {10},

pages = {1319–1330},

abstract = {There is an ongoing debate in the literature about whether facial emotion perception is carried automatically- that is, without effort or attentional resources. While it is generally accepted that spatial attention is necessary for the perception of emotional facial expressions, the picture is less clear for central attention. Using the bubbles method, we provide results that were obtained by measuring the effect of the psychological refractory period on diagnostic information for the basic facial expressions. Based on previous findings that linked spatial attention with processing of the eyes and of high spatial frequencies in the visual periphery, we hypothesized that reliance on the eyes might decrease when central resources were monopolized by a difficult prioritized auditory task. Central load led to a marked decrease in left eye utilization that was generalized across emotions; on the contrary, utilization of the mouth was unaffected by central load. Thus, processing of the left eye might be nonautomatic, and processing of the mouth might be automatic. Interestingly, we also observed a reduction in reliance on the left side of the face under central load that was accompanied by a commensurate increase in reliance on the right side of the face. We end with a discussion of how hemispheric asymmetries might account for these peculiar findings. © 2019 American Psychological Association.},

note = {Publisher: American Psychological Association Inc.},

keywords = {Adolescent, adult, attention, Auditory Perception, Automatic processing, Bubbles, Central attention, emotion, Emotions, Executive Function, Eye, Facial Expression, Facial Recognition, female, hearing, human, Humans, male, perception, physiology, Psychological, psychological refractory period, Psychophysics, Refractory Period, Social Perception, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{duncan_revisiting_2019,

title = {Revisiting the Link Between Horizontal Tuning and Face Processing Ability With Independent Measures},

author = {J. Duncan and J. Royer and G. Dugas and C. Blais and D. Fiset},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85074117809&doi=10.1037%2fxhp0000684&partnerID=40&md5=b88c8d1ad6db16940a7782d664414dae},

doi = {10.1037/xhp0000684},

issn = {00961523},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance},

abstract = {In recent years, horizontal spatial information has received attention for its role in face perception. One study, for instance, has reported an association between horizontal tuning for faces and face identification ability measured within the same task. A possible consequence of this is that the correlation could have been overestimated. In the present study, we wanted to reexamine this question. We first measured face processing ability on the Cambridge Face Memory Test±, the Cambridge Face Perception Test, and the Glasgow Face Matching Test. A single ability score was extracted using a principal components analysis. In a separate task, participants also completed an identification task in which faces were randomly filtered on a trial basis using orientation bubbles. This task allowed the extraction of individual orientation profiles and horizontal tuning scores for faces. We then measured the association between horizontal tuning for faces and the face-processing ability score and observed a significant positive correlation. Importantly, this relation could not be accounted for by other factors such as object-processing ability, horizontal tuning for cars, or greater sensitivity to horizontal gratings. Our data give further credence to the hypothesis that horizontal facial structure plays a crucial role in face processing. © 2019 American Psychological Association.},

note = {Publisher: American Psychological Association},

keywords = {Adolescent, adult, Depth Perception, Facial Recognition, human, Humans, neuropsychological test, Neuropsychological Tests, perception, physiology, Psychophysics, Social Perception, Space Perception, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{tardif_culture_2017,

title = {Culture shapes spatial frequency tuning for face identification},

author = {J. Tardif and D. Fiset and Y. Zhang and A. Estéphan and Q. Cai and C. Luo and D. Sun and F. Gosselin and C. Blais},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85007170276&doi=10.1037%2fxhp0000288&partnerID=40&md5=ed8796fea4a7a48b33b0aad005ce3872},

doi = {10.1037/xhp0000288},

issn = {00961523 (ISSN)},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance},

volume = {43},

number = {2},

pages = {294–306},

abstract = {Many studies have revealed cultural differences in the way Easterners and Westerners attend to their visual world. It has been proposed that these cultural differences reflect the utilization of different processes, namely holistic processes by Easterners and analytical processes by Westerners. In the face processing literature, eye movement studies have revealed different fixation patterns for Easterners and Westerners that are congruent with a broader spread of attention by Easterners: compared with Westerners, Easterners tend to fixate more toward the center of the face even if they need the information provided by the eyes and mouth. Although this cultural difference could reflect an impact of culture on the visual mechanisms underlying face processing, this interpretation has been questioned by the finding that Easterners and Westerners do not differ on the location of their initial fixations, that is, those that have been shown as being sufficient for face recognition. Because a broader spread of attention is typically linked with the reduced sensitivity to higher spatial frequency, the present study directly compared the spatial frequency tuning of Easterners (Chinese) and Westerners (Canadians) in 2 face recognition tasks (Experiment 1 and 2), along with their general low-level sensitivity to spatial frequencies (Experiment 3). Consistent with our hypothesis, Chinese participants were tuned toward lower spatial frequencies than Canadians participants during the face recognition tasks, despite comparable low-level contrast sensitivity functions. These results strongly support the hypothesis that culture impacts the nature of the visual information extracted during face recognition. © 2016 American Psychological Association.},

note = {Publisher: American Psychological Association Inc.},

keywords = {adult, Canada, China, Cross-Cultural Comparison, cultural factor, Culture, Face processing, Facial Recognition, female, human, Humans, male, perception, physiology, Psychophysics, Social Perception, spatial frequency, Visual Perception, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{royer_efficient_2016,

title = {Efficient visual information for unfamiliar face matching despite viewpoint variations: It's not in the eyes!},

author = {J. Royer and C. Blais and V. Barnabé-Lortie and M. Carré and J. Leclerc and D. Fiset},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84968779426&doi=10.1016%2fj.visres.2016.04.004&partnerID=40&md5=4c63f6eea279f7322c9af23ae9ed22c1},

doi = {10.1016/j.visres.2016.04.004},

issn = {00426989 (ISSN)},

year  = {2016},

date = {2016-01-01},

journal = {Vision Research},

volume = {123},

pages = {33–40},

abstract = {Faces are encountered in highly diverse angles in real-world settings. Despite this considerable diversity, most individuals are able to easily recognize familiar faces. The vast majority of studies in the field of face recognition have nonetheless focused almost exclusively on frontal views of faces. Indeed, a number of authors have investigated the diagnostic facial features for the recognition of frontal views of faces previously encoded in this same view. However, the nature of the information useful for identity matching when the encoded face and test face differ in viewing angle remains mostly unexplored. The present study addresses this issue using individual differences and bubbles, a method that pinpoints the facial features effectively used in a visual categorization task. Our results indicate that the use of features located in the center of the face, the lower left portion of the nose area and the center of the mouth, are significantly associated with individual efficiency to generalize a face's identity across different viewpoints. However, as faces become more familiar, the reliance on this area decreases, while the diagnosticity of the eye region increases. This suggests that a certain distinction can be made between the visual mechanisms subtending viewpoint invariance and face recognition in the case of unfamiliar face identification. Our results further support the idea that the eye area may only come into play when the face stimulus is particularly familiar to the observer. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.},

note = {Publisher: Elsevier Ltd},

keywords = {accuracy, adult, article, association, attention, Bubbles, Evoked Potentials, eye fixation, Face, face profile, face recognition, Facial Recognition, facies, female, Fixation, human, human experiment, Humans, Image analysis, Individual differences, male, Ocular, Pattern Recognition, Photic Stimulation, photostimulation, physiology, priority journal, procedures, Psychophysics, recognition, Recognition (Psychology), regression analysis, task performance, unfamiliar face matching, viewpoint variation, Viewpoint variations, Visual, visual discrimination, visual evoked potential, visual information, visual memory, visual stimulation, visual system parameters, Young Adult},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{warren_target-distractor_2009,

title = {Target-distractor interference in the attentional blink implicates the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system},

author = {C. M. Warren and A. T. Breuer and J. Kantner and D. Fiset and C. Blais and M. E. J. Masson},

url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-74849134787&doi=10.3758%2fPBR.16.6.1106&partnerID=40&md5=dedfbcb0f338038cbcaedefcbc9d184f},

doi = {10.3758/PBR.16.6.1106},

issn = {10699384},

year  = {2009},

date = {2009-01-01},

journal = {Psychonomic Bulletin and Review},

volume = {16},

number = {6},

pages = {1106–1111},

abstract = {We provide evidence that the locus coeruleus-norephinephrine (LC-NE) system is the neurophysiological basis of the attentional blink. The attentional blink refers to decreased accuracy for reporting the second of two targets in a rapid serial visual presentation of distractors. The LC-NE account of the attentional blink posits that targets elicit a facilitative LC-NE system response that is available for the first target but subsequently unavailable to the second, due to the autoinhibitory nature of the LC-NE system. We propose a modification of the LC-NE account, suggesting that the LC-NE system response is elicited by interference between mutually exclusive responses demanded by temporally proximal targets and distractors. We increased the interference between the first target and the following distractor by reducing the time between them. For identifying the second target this high-interference condition yielded a benefit up to 200 msec after onset of the first, followed by a decrease in accuracy. Consistent with our modification of the LC-NE account, this result suggests a temporarily enhanced LC-NE system response to increased target-distractor interference. © 2009 The Psychonomic Society, Inc.},

keywords = {article, Attentional Blink, human, Humans, Learning, locus ceruleus, Locus Coeruleus, Memory, Models, noradrenalin, Norepinephrine, Pattern Recognition, perception, Perceptual Masking, physiology, Psychological, psychological model, Psychophysics, reaction time, Serial Learning, short term memory, Short-Term, Visual},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}