Happy Fechner Day, to those who celebrate

Though face recognition is often described as being distinct within the visual system, with processes like the inversion effect that are unlike those seen elsewhere, here we show that the retinotopic signatures of low level vision are still visible in high level face-selective processing.

6/7

Note that we also see an inversion effect whereby upright faces can be recognised at smaller sizes than inverted faces, suggesting involvement of face-selective mechanisms.

5/7

We find that acuity for face recognition is better on the horizontal meridian (left/right of fixation) than vertical (above/below), and in the lower field than the upper. This matches the anisotropies seen in low-level vision for tasks like acuity and orientation discrimination.

4/7

We suspected the difference is in the measures. Annie developed an acuity test for face recognition to bring measures from low-level vision to high-level tasks - measuring the smallest size at which apparent facial gender can be recognised at diff. locations in peripheral vision.

3/7

In low-level vision, abilities vary systematically around the visual field with eg better acuity in the lower vs upper field and on the horizontal vs vertical meridian. Prior work on faces suggested that variations in face recognition are either distinct or entirely idiosyncratic

2/7