Biomedical subjects

V Bruce

Publications and source records attributed to V Bruce.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1992

Modelling face recognition.

Much early work in the psychology of face processing was hampered by a failure to think carefully about task demands. Recently our understanding of the processes involved in the recognition of familiar faces has been both encapsulated in, and guided by, functional models of the processes involved in processing and recognizing faces. The specification and predictive power of such theory has been increased with the development of an implemented model, based upon an 'interactive activation and competition' architecture. However, a major deficiency in most accounts of face processing is their failure to spell out the perceptual primitives that form the basis of our representations for faces. Possible representational schemes are discussed, and the potential role of three-dimensional representations of the face is emphasized.

Cognition↗

PubMed1992

I recognize your face but I can't remember your name: a simple explanation?

When shown the faces of familiar people, subjects are typically slower and less accurate at retrieving names than other semantic information. This finding, along with converging evidence from neuropsychological studies, has influenced most theoretical accounts of face recognition (e.g. Bruce & Young, 1986). These accounts propose that names are stored separately from semantic information, and that they may not be retrieved in the absence of other information. Here we show that it is possible to account for empirical findings without positing a separate store for names. The account is based on an implemented simulation with an interactive activation and competition architecture. We demonstrate that the fact that most names are unique leads naturally to the patterns of recall found in experimental studies.

Arousal↗

PubMed1991

Context effects in the processing of familiar faces.

In this paper we report five experiments that investigate the influence of prime faces upon the speed with which familiar faces are recognized and named. Previously, priming had been reported when the prime and target faces were closely associated, e.g., Prince Charles and Princess Diana (Bruce & Valentine, 1986). In Experiment 1 we show that there is a reliable effect of relatedness on a double-familiarity decision, even when the faces are only categorically related, e.g., Kirk Douglas and Clint Eastwood. Then it was shown that such an effect emerges only on a double decision task (Experiments 2 and 3). Experiment 4 showed that on a primed naming task, faces preceded by a categorically related prime were responded to more quickly than those preceded by an unrelated prime, and the effect was due to inhibition. Experiment 5 replicated this effect and also showed that when associatively related primes were used, a facilitatory, and not an inhibitory, effect is found. It is argued that the facilitation of associative priming arises at an earlier locus than the inhibition of categorial priming.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Understanding covert recognition.

An implementation of Bruce and Young's (1986) functional model of face recognition is used to examine patterns of covert face recognition previously reported in a prosopagnosic patient, PH. Although PH is unable to recognize overly the faces of people known to him, he shows normal patterns of face processing when tested indirectly. A simple manipulation of one set of connections in the implemented model induces behaviour consistent with patterns of results from PH obtained in semantic priming and interference tasks. We compare this account with previous explanations of covert recognition and demonstrate that the implemented model provides the most natural and parsimonious account available. Two further patients are discussed who show deficits in person perception. The first (MS) is prosopagnosic but shows no covert recognition. The second (ME) is not prosopagnosic, but cannot access semantic information relating to familiar people. The model provides an account of recognition impairments which is sufficiently general also to be useful in describing these patients.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Remembering facial configurations.

Eight experiments are reported showing that subjects can remember rather subtle aspects of the configuration of facial features to which they have earlier been exposed. Subjects saw several slightly different configurations (formed by altering the relative placement of internal features of the face) of each of ten different faces, and they were asked to rate the apparent age and masculinity-femininity of each. Afterwards, subjects were asked to select from pairs of faces the configuration which was identical to one previously rated. Subjects responded strongly to the central or "prototypical" configuration of each studied face where this was included as one member of each test pair, whether or not it had been studied (Experiments 1, 2 and 4). Subjects were also quite accurate at recognizing one of the previously encountered extremes of the series of configurations that had been rated (Experiment 3), but when unseen prototypes were paired with seen exemplars subjects' performance was at chance (Experiment 5). Prototype learning of face patterns was shown to be stronger than that for house patterns, though both classes of patterns were affected equally by inversion (Experiment 6). The final two experiments demonstrated that preferences for the prototype could be affected by instructions at study and by whether different exemplars of the same face were shown consecutively or distributed through the study series. The discussion examines the implications of these results for theories of the representation of faces and for instance-based models of memory.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Recognising facial surfaces.

The extent to which faces depicted as surfaces devoid of pigmentation and with minimal texture cues ('head models') could be matched with photographs (when unfamiliar) and identified (when familiar) was examined in three experiments. The head models were obtained by scanning the three-dimensional surface of the face with a laser, and by displaying the surface measured in this way by using standard computer-aided design techniques. Performance in all tasks was above chance but far from ceiling. Experiment 1 showed that matching of unfamiliar head models with photographs was affected by the resolution with which the surface was displayed, suggesting that subjects based their decisions, at least in part, on three-dimensional surface structure. Matching accuracy was also affected by other factors to do with the view-points shown in the head models and test photographs, and the type of lighting used to portray the head model. In experiment 2 further evidence for the importance of the nature of the illumination used was obtained, and it was found that the addition of a hairstyle (not that of the target face) did not facilitate matching. In experiment 3 identification of the head models by colleagues of the people shown was compared with identification of photographs where the hair was concealed and eyes were closed. Head models were identified less well than these photographs, suggesting that the difficulties in their recognition are not solely due to the lack of hair. Women's heads were disproportionately difficult to recognise from the head models. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the use of such three-dimensional head models in forensic and surgical applications.

Adolescent↗