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The perception of (naked only) bodies and faceless heads relies on holistic processing: Evidence from the inversion effect
Author(s) -
Bonemei Rob,
Costantino Andrea I.,
Battistel Ilenia,
Rivolta Davide
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/bjop.12271
Subject(s) - perception , psychology , stimulus (psychology) , inversion (geology) , communication , face perception , computer vision , cognitive psychology , neuroscience , computer science , geology , paleontology , structural basin
Faces and bodies are more difficult to perceive when presented inverted than when presented upright (i.e., stimulus inversion effect), an effect that has been attributed to the disruption of holistic processing. The features that can trigger holistic processing in faces and bodies, however, still remain elusive. In this study, using a sequential matching task, we tested whether stimulus inversion affects various categories of visual stimuli: faces, faceless heads, faceless heads in body context, headless bodies naked, whole bodies naked, headless bodies clothed, and whole bodies clothed. Both accuracy and inversion efficiency score results show inversion effects for all categories but for clothed bodies (with and without heads). In addition, the magnitude of the inversion effect for face, naked body, and faceless heads was similar. Our findings demonstrate that the perception of faces, faceless heads, and naked bodies relies on holistic processing. Clothed bodies (with and without heads), on the other side, may trigger clothes‐sensitive rather than body‐sensitive perceptual mechanisms.