Open AccessCrossing the ‘Uncanny Valley’: Adaptation to Cartoon Faces Can Influence Perception of Human Faces
Author(s) -
Haiwen Chen,
Richard Russell,
Ken Nakayama,
Margaret Livingstone
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
perception
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.619
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1468-4233
pISSN - 0301-0066
DOI - 10.1068/p6492
Subject(s) - uncanny valley , adaptation (eye) , animation , perception , psychology , face (sociological concept) , cognitive psychology , uncanny , face perception , affect (linguistics) , representation (politics) , computer science , communication , computer graphics (images) , neuroscience , linguistics , philosophy , politics , political science , psychoanalysis , law
In this study we assessed whether there is a single face space common to both human and cartoon faces by testing whether adaptation to cartoon faces can affect perception of human faces. Participants were shown Japanese animation cartoon videos containing faces with abnormally large eyes. The use of animated videos eliminated the possibility of position-dependent retinotopic adaptation (because the faces appear at many different locations) and more closely simulated naturalistic exposure. Adaptation to cartoon faces with large eyes significantly shifted preferences for human faces toward larger eyes, consistent with a common, non-retinotopic representation for both cartoon and human faces. This supports the possibility that there are representations that are specific to faces yet common to all kinds of faces.