Publications by category
Journal articles
Civile C, Chamizo VD, Artigas A, McLaren IPL (In Press). Directional cue and landmark configurations: the effect of rotating one set of landmarks relative to another.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition Full text.
McLaren R, McLaren IPL, Civile C (2019). Pre-exposure and learning in young children: Evidence of latent inhibition?. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society., 2332-2337.
Humsani SA, Civile C, McLaren IPL (2019). The impact of meta-memory judgements on undergraduates’ learning and memory performance. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society., 1527-1532.
Civile C, Wooster B, Curtis A, McLaren R, McLaren IPL, Lavric A (2019). Using transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to modulate the face inversion effect on the N170 ERP component. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society., 1527-1532.
Civile C, McLaren R, McLaren IPL (2018). How We can Change Your Mind: Anodal tDCS to Fp3 alters human stimulus representation and learning.
Neuropsychologia Full text.
Civile C, Colvin E, Siddiqui H, Sukhvinder O (2018). Labelling faces as “Autistic” reduces the Inversion Effect.
Autism,
23, 1596-1600.
Full text.
Civile C, Obhi SS, McLaren IPL (2018). The Role of Experience-based Perceptual Learning in the Face Inversion Effect.
Vision Research,
157, 84-88.
Full text.
Civile C, Elchlepp H, McLaren RP, Galang CM, Lavric A, McLaren IPL (2018). The effect of scrambling upright and inverted faces on the N170.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Full text.
Civile C, Obhi SS (2017). Students wearing police uniforms exhibit biased attention toward individuals wearing hoodies.
Frontiers in Psychology,
8(FEB).
Abstract:
Students wearing police uniforms exhibit biased attention toward individuals wearing hoodies
© 2017 Civile and Obhi. Police provide an essential public service and they often operate in difficult circumstances, requiring high-speed cognition. Recent incidents involving apparent profiling and aggressive behavior have led to accusations that the police are sometimes biased. Given that previous research has shown a link between clothing and cognition, we investigated the question of whether the police uniform itself might induce a bias in social attention. To address this question, and using a Canadian university student sample, we assessed whether wearing a police uniform biases attention toward black faces compared to white faces, and low-status individuals compared to high-status individuals. In Experiment 1 (n = 28), participants wore either a police-style uniform or mechanic overalls, and performed a shape categorization task in the presence of a distractor that could be either: a black face, a white face, a person wearing a hoodie (whom we propose will be associated with low SES), or a person wearing a suit (whom we propose will be associated with high SES). Participants wearing the police-style uniform exhibited biased attention, indexed by slower reaction times (RTs), in the presence of low-SES images. In Experiment 2 (n = 28), we confirmed this bias using a modified Dot-Probe task - an alternate measure of attentional bias in which we observed faster RTs to a dot probe that was spatially aligned with a low SES image. Experiment 3 (n = 56) demonstrated that attentional bias toward low-SES targets appears only when participants wear the police-style uniform, and not when they are simply exposed to it - by having it placed on the desk in front of them. Our results demonstrate that wearing a police-style uniform biases attention toward low-SES targets. Thus, wearing a police-style uniform may induce a kind of "status-profiling" in which individuals from low-status groups become salient and capture attention. We note that our results are limited to university students and that it will be important to extend them to members of the community and law-enforcement officers. We discuss how uniforms might exert their effects on cognition by virtue of the power and cultural associations they evoke in the wearer.
Abstract.
Civile C, Obhi S, McLaren IPL (2017). Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and the Face Inversion Effect: Anodal stimulation at Fp3 reduces recognition for upright faces.
Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society., 1782-1787.
Full text.
McLaren IPL, Carpenter K, Civile C, McLaren R, Zhao D, Milton F, Verbruggen F (2016). Categorisation and Perceptual Learning: Why tDCS to Left DLPC enhances generalisation. Associative Learning and Cognition. Homage to Prof. N.J. Mackintosh. Trobalon, J.B. and Chamizo, V.D. (Eds.), University of Barcelona., 37-67.
Civile C, Obhi SS (2016). Power Eliminates the Influence of Body Posture on Facial Emotion Recognition.
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior,
40(4), 283-299.
Abstract:
Power Eliminates the Influence of Body Posture on Facial Emotion Recognition
© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. We investigated how power priming affects facial emotion recognition in the context of body postures conveying the same or different emotion. Facial emotions are usually recognized better when the face is presented with a congruent body posture, and recognized worse when the body posture is incongruent. In our study, we primed participants to either low, high, or neutral power prior to their performance in a facial-emotion categorization task in which faces were presented together with a congruent or incongruent body posture. Facial emotion recognition in high-power participants was not affected by body posture. In contrast, low-power and neutral-power participants were significantly affected by the congruence of facial and body emotions. Specifically, these participants displayed better facial emotion recognition when the body posture was congruent, and worse performance when the body posture was incongruent. In a following task, we trained the same participants to categorize two sets of novel checkerboard stimuli and then engaged them in a recognition test involving compounds of these stimuli. High, low, and neutral-power participants all showed a strong congruence effect for compound checkerboard stimuli. We discuss our results with reference to the literature on power and social perception.
Abstract.
Civile C, Rajagobal A, Obhi SS (2016). Power, Ethnic Origin, and Sexual Objectification.
SAGE Open,
6(2).
Abstract:
Power, Ethnic Origin, and Sexual Objectification
© 2016, © the Author(s) 2016. In this study, we investigated the effects of primed power on sexual objectification of Caucasian and Asian men and women. As in previous studies, sexual objectification was assessed using an inversion paradigm with face–body compound stimuli. Previous work has shown that participants primed to power do not show the typical drop in recognition performance for inverted face–body compound stimuli, suggesting that they process these stimuli in terms of their individual features, in a manner akin to objects, and quite different from the way in which faces and bodies are normally processed (i.e. configurally). Caucasian male and female participants were primed to high or neutral-power before engaging in an old/new recognition task involving sexualized face–body compound images of Caucasian and Asian men and women. Participants primed to high-power showed a decreased inversion effect for Caucasian models of the opposite gender, but not for Asian models. Thus, power exerts different effects on this specific type of social perception, depending on the ethnic origin of the target. We discuss our results in the context of the extant literature on power and with reference to media stereotyping of Caucasians and Asians.
Abstract.
Civile C, Obhi, S.S. (2016). Power, Objectification, and Ethnicity. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 359-359.
Civile C, Obhi SS (2016). Power, Objectification, and Recognition of Sexualized Women and Men.
Psychology of Women Quarterly,
40(2), 199-212.
Abstract:
Power, Objectification, and Recognition of Sexualized Women and Men
© 2015, © the Author(s) 2015. In contemporary society, sexual objectification is usually thought of as something that men do to women. However, this notion risks conflating the gender of the perpetrator with the fact that men often hold more social power than women. In the current study, we investigated whether power itself was associated with changes in processing of sexualized human targets, independent of the gender of the power holder. In Experiment 1, we primed separate groups of female participants to high-, low-, or neutral-power. We then engaged them in a recognition task involving upright or inverted sexualized images of men and women. Previous research using stimulus inversion manipulations has found that inversion of faces/bodies, but not of objects, disrupts recognition performance, suggesting a reliance on more configural processing in face/body perception compared to object perception. We found that women primed to high-power did not show an inversion effect for sexualized men but did show an inversion effect for sexualized women. In contrast, women primed to low-power showed an inversion effect for sexualized men and women. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding and found a similar effect of power for male participants perceiving sexualized images of women. We discuss our results with reference to the literatures on objectification and the cognitive processes involved in the perception of sexualized men and women. Our study provides seminal evidence that power, rather than gender per se, may play a central role in sexual objectification. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ's website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental
Abstract.
Civile C, Verbruggen, McLaren, Zhao D, Ku Y, McLaren IPL (2016). Switching off perceptual learning: tDCS to left DLPFC eliminates perceptual learning in humans.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 290-296.
Full text.
Civile, McLaren, McLaren (2016). The Face Inversion Effect: Roles of First and Second-Order Configural Information.
The American Journal of Psychology,
129(1), 23-23.
Full text.
Civile C, Obhi SS (2015). Towards a mechanistic understanding of the effects of body posture on facial emotion categorization.
American Journal of Psychology,
128(3), 367-377.
Abstract:
Towards a mechanistic understanding of the effects of body posture on facial emotion categorization
© 2015 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. This study investigated the causes of the face-body congruence effect (FBCE), which refers to the advantage in performance when participants are asked to categorize emotional faces compounded with emotional matching body postures (congruent) compared with incongruent face-body compound stimuli (body postures mismatching the facial emotions). Experiment 1 showed that manipulations aiming to alter holistic processing significantly reduced the FBCE. In particular, the disruption of holistic processing affected significantly the performance for congruent composites. However, no effect was obtained on the incongruent stimuli. In Experiment 2, the inversion manipulation showed a clear disadvantage for incongruent stimuli brought by the disruption of the single feature orientation information. Thus, we found confirmation of the different processing involved in perceiving congruent and incongruent stimuli. Finally, Experiment 3 confirmed that we are able to reduce entirely the FBCE when the orientation of the units (the face and the body) constituting the incongruent composites is matched.
Abstract.
Civile C, Zhao D, Ku Y, Elchlepp H, Lavric A, McLaren IPL (2014). Perceptual learning and inversion effects: Recognition of prototype-defined familiar checkerboards.
J Exp Psychol Anim Learn Cogn,
40(2), 144-161.
Abstract:
Perceptual learning and inversion effects: Recognition of prototype-defined familiar checkerboards.
The face inversion effect is a defection in performance in recognizing inverted faces compared with faces presented in their usual upright orientation typically believed to be specific for facial stimuli. McLaren (1997) was able to demonstrate that (a) an inversion effect could be obtained with exemplars drawn from a familiar category, such that upright exemplars were better discriminated than inverted exemplars; and (b) that the inversion effect required that the familiar category be prototype-defined. In this article, we replicate and extend these findings. We show that the inversion effect can be obtained in a standard old/new recognition memory paradigm, demonstrate that it is contingent on familiarization with a prototype-defined category, and establish that the effect is made up of two components. We confirm the advantage for upright exemplars drawn from a familiar, prototype-defined category, and show that there is a disadvantage for inverted exemplars drawn from this category relative to suitable controls. We also provide evidence that there is an N170 event-related potential signature for this effect. These results allow us to integrate a theory of perceptual learning originally proposed by McLaren, Kaye, and Mackintosh (1989) with explanations of the face inversion effect, first reported by Yin.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
Civile C, Chamizo VD, Mackintosh NJ, McLaren IPL (2014). The effect of disrupting configural information on rats' performance in the Morris water maze.
Learning and MotivationAbstract:
The effect of disrupting configural information on rats' performance in the Morris water maze
Many experiments on spatial navigation suggest that a rat uses the configuration of extra-maze landmarks to guide its choice of arm or location to visit. In the present study, based on Chamizo Rodríguez, Espinet, and Mackintosh's (2012) navigation paradigm, we conducted a series of experiments in which we focused on how changes to the configuration of stimuli surrounding the maze, implemented by transposing the location of both near and far landmarks, significantly affected rats' performance (Experiment1, Test Phase 1). Subsequent tests demonstrated that it was the near landmarks that played the major role in this navigation task (Experiment 1, Test Phases 2 and 3). Experiment 2 provided evidence for a novel type of inversion effect in the water maze, by showing that rotation by 180° of the location of one set of landmarks relative to a directional cue also strongly affected performance. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Abstract.
Full text.
Civile C, McLaren RP, McLaren IPL (2014). The face inversion effect--parts and wholes: individual features and their configuration.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove),
67(4), 728-746.
Abstract:
The face inversion effect--parts and wholes: individual features and their configuration.
The face inversion effect (FIE) is a reduction in recognition performance for inverted faces (compared to upright faces) that is greater than that typically observed with other stimulus types (e.g. houses). The work of Diamond and Carey, suggests that a special type of configural information, "second-order relational information" is critical in generating this inversion effect. However, Tanaka and Farah concluded that greater reliance on second-order relational information did not directly result in greater sensitivity to inversion, and they suggested that the FIE is not entirely due to a reliance on this type of configural information. A more recent review by McKone and Yovel provides a meta-analysis that makes a similar point. In this paper, we investigated the contributions made by configural and featural information to the FIE. Experiments 1a and1b investigated the link between configural information and the FIE. Remarkably, Experiment 1b showed that disruption of all configural information of the type considered in Diamond and Carey's analysis (both first and second order) was effective in reducing recognition performance, but did not significantly impact on the FIE. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that face processing is affected by the orientation of individual features and that this plays a major role in producing the FIE. The FIE was only completely eliminated when we disrupted the single feature orientation information in addition to the configural information, by using a new type of transformation similar to Thatcherizing our sets of scrambled faces. We conclude by noting that our results for scrambled faces are consistent with an account that has recognition performance entirely determined by the proportion of upright facial features within a stimulus, and that any ability to make use of the spatial configuration of these features seems to benefit upright and inverted normal faces alike.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
Civile C, Elchlepp H, McLaren R, Lavric A, McLaren IPL (2012). Face recognition and brain potentials: Disruption of configural information reduces the face inversion effect. In N. Miyake, D. Peebles, & R. P. Cooper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society., 1422-1427.
Civile C, Elchlepp H, McLaren R, Lavric A, McLaren IPL (2012). The face inversion effect and evoked brain potentials: Complete loss of configural information affects the N170. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, 1416-1421.
Civile C, McLaren R, McLaren IPL (2011). Perceptual learning and face recognition: Disruption of second-order relational information reduces the face inversion effect. In L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, & T.F. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society., 2083-2088.
McLaren IPL, Civile C (2011). Perceptual learning for a familiar category under inversion: an analogue of face inversion?. In L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, & T.F. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, 3320-3325.
Publications by year
In Press
Civile C, Chamizo VD, Artigas A, McLaren IPL (In Press). Directional cue and landmark configurations: the effect of rotating one set of landmarks relative to another.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition Full text.
2019
McLaren R, McLaren IPL, Civile C (2019). Pre-exposure and learning in young children: Evidence of latent inhibition?. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society., 2332-2337.
Humsani SA, Civile C, McLaren IPL (2019). The impact of meta-memory judgements on undergraduates’ learning and memory performance. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society., 1527-1532.
Civile C, Wooster B, Curtis A, McLaren R, McLaren IPL, Lavric A (2019). Using transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to modulate the face inversion effect on the N170 ERP component. In A.K. Goel, C.M. Seifert, & C. Freska (Eds.), Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Montreal, QB: Cognitive Science Society., 1527-1532.
2018
Civile C, McLaren R, McLaren IPL (2018). How We can Change Your Mind: Anodal tDCS to Fp3 alters human stimulus representation and learning.
Neuropsychologia Full text.
Civile C, Colvin E, Siddiqui H, Sukhvinder O (2018). Labelling faces as “Autistic” reduces the Inversion Effect.
Autism,
23, 1596-1600.
Full text.
Civile C, Obhi SS, McLaren IPL (2018). The Role of Experience-based Perceptual Learning in the Face Inversion Effect.
Vision Research,
157, 84-88.
Full text.
Civile C, Elchlepp H, McLaren RP, Galang CM, Lavric A, McLaren IPL (2018). The effect of scrambling upright and inverted faces on the N170.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Full text.
2017
Civile C, Obhi SS (2017). Students wearing police uniforms exhibit biased attention toward individuals wearing hoodies.
Frontiers in Psychology,
8(FEB).
Abstract:
Students wearing police uniforms exhibit biased attention toward individuals wearing hoodies
© 2017 Civile and Obhi. Police provide an essential public service and they often operate in difficult circumstances, requiring high-speed cognition. Recent incidents involving apparent profiling and aggressive behavior have led to accusations that the police are sometimes biased. Given that previous research has shown a link between clothing and cognition, we investigated the question of whether the police uniform itself might induce a bias in social attention. To address this question, and using a Canadian university student sample, we assessed whether wearing a police uniform biases attention toward black faces compared to white faces, and low-status individuals compared to high-status individuals. In Experiment 1 (n = 28), participants wore either a police-style uniform or mechanic overalls, and performed a shape categorization task in the presence of a distractor that could be either: a black face, a white face, a person wearing a hoodie (whom we propose will be associated with low SES), or a person wearing a suit (whom we propose will be associated with high SES). Participants wearing the police-style uniform exhibited biased attention, indexed by slower reaction times (RTs), in the presence of low-SES images. In Experiment 2 (n = 28), we confirmed this bias using a modified Dot-Probe task - an alternate measure of attentional bias in which we observed faster RTs to a dot probe that was spatially aligned with a low SES image. Experiment 3 (n = 56) demonstrated that attentional bias toward low-SES targets appears only when participants wear the police-style uniform, and not when they are simply exposed to it - by having it placed on the desk in front of them. Our results demonstrate that wearing a police-style uniform biases attention toward low-SES targets. Thus, wearing a police-style uniform may induce a kind of "status-profiling" in which individuals from low-status groups become salient and capture attention. We note that our results are limited to university students and that it will be important to extend them to members of the community and law-enforcement officers. We discuss how uniforms might exert their effects on cognition by virtue of the power and cultural associations they evoke in the wearer.
Abstract.
Civile C, Obhi S, McLaren IPL (2017). Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) and the Face Inversion Effect: Anodal stimulation at Fp3 reduces recognition for upright faces.
Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society., 1782-1787.
Full text.
2016
McLaren IPL, Carpenter K, Civile C, McLaren R, Zhao D, Milton F, Verbruggen F (2016). Categorisation and Perceptual Learning: Why tDCS to Left DLPC enhances generalisation. Associative Learning and Cognition. Homage to Prof. N.J. Mackintosh. Trobalon, J.B. and Chamizo, V.D. (Eds.), University of Barcelona., 37-67.
Civile C, Obhi SS (2016). Power Eliminates the Influence of Body Posture on Facial Emotion Recognition.
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior,
40(4), 283-299.
Abstract:
Power Eliminates the Influence of Body Posture on Facial Emotion Recognition
© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York. We investigated how power priming affects facial emotion recognition in the context of body postures conveying the same or different emotion. Facial emotions are usually recognized better when the face is presented with a congruent body posture, and recognized worse when the body posture is incongruent. In our study, we primed participants to either low, high, or neutral power prior to their performance in a facial-emotion categorization task in which faces were presented together with a congruent or incongruent body posture. Facial emotion recognition in high-power participants was not affected by body posture. In contrast, low-power and neutral-power participants were significantly affected by the congruence of facial and body emotions. Specifically, these participants displayed better facial emotion recognition when the body posture was congruent, and worse performance when the body posture was incongruent. In a following task, we trained the same participants to categorize two sets of novel checkerboard stimuli and then engaged them in a recognition test involving compounds of these stimuli. High, low, and neutral-power participants all showed a strong congruence effect for compound checkerboard stimuli. We discuss our results with reference to the literature on power and social perception.
Abstract.
Civile C, Rajagobal A, Obhi SS (2016). Power, Ethnic Origin, and Sexual Objectification.
SAGE Open,
6(2).
Abstract:
Power, Ethnic Origin, and Sexual Objectification
© 2016, © the Author(s) 2016. In this study, we investigated the effects of primed power on sexual objectification of Caucasian and Asian men and women. As in previous studies, sexual objectification was assessed using an inversion paradigm with face–body compound stimuli. Previous work has shown that participants primed to power do not show the typical drop in recognition performance for inverted face–body compound stimuli, suggesting that they process these stimuli in terms of their individual features, in a manner akin to objects, and quite different from the way in which faces and bodies are normally processed (i.e. configurally). Caucasian male and female participants were primed to high or neutral-power before engaging in an old/new recognition task involving sexualized face–body compound images of Caucasian and Asian men and women. Participants primed to high-power showed a decreased inversion effect for Caucasian models of the opposite gender, but not for Asian models. Thus, power exerts different effects on this specific type of social perception, depending on the ethnic origin of the target. We discuss our results in the context of the extant literature on power and with reference to media stereotyping of Caucasians and Asians.
Abstract.
Civile C, Obhi, S.S. (2016). Power, Objectification, and Ethnicity. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 359-359.
Civile C, Obhi SS (2016). Power, Objectification, and Recognition of Sexualized Women and Men.
Psychology of Women Quarterly,
40(2), 199-212.
Abstract:
Power, Objectification, and Recognition of Sexualized Women and Men
© 2015, © the Author(s) 2015. In contemporary society, sexual objectification is usually thought of as something that men do to women. However, this notion risks conflating the gender of the perpetrator with the fact that men often hold more social power than women. In the current study, we investigated whether power itself was associated with changes in processing of sexualized human targets, independent of the gender of the power holder. In Experiment 1, we primed separate groups of female participants to high-, low-, or neutral-power. We then engaged them in a recognition task involving upright or inverted sexualized images of men and women. Previous research using stimulus inversion manipulations has found that inversion of faces/bodies, but not of objects, disrupts recognition performance, suggesting a reliance on more configural processing in face/body perception compared to object perception. We found that women primed to high-power did not show an inversion effect for sexualized men but did show an inversion effect for sexualized women. In contrast, women primed to low-power showed an inversion effect for sexualized men and women. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding and found a similar effect of power for male participants perceiving sexualized images of women. We discuss our results with reference to the literatures on objectification and the cognitive processes involved in the perception of sexualized men and women. Our study provides seminal evidence that power, rather than gender per se, may play a central role in sexual objectification. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ's website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental
Abstract.
Civile C, Verbruggen, McLaren, Zhao D, Ku Y, McLaren IPL (2016). Switching off perceptual learning: tDCS to left DLPFC eliminates perceptual learning in humans.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 290-296.
Full text.
Civile, McLaren, McLaren (2016). The Face Inversion Effect: Roles of First and Second-Order Configural Information.
The American Journal of Psychology,
129(1), 23-23.
Full text.
2015
Civile C, Obhi SS (2015). Towards a mechanistic understanding of the effects of body posture on facial emotion categorization.
American Journal of Psychology,
128(3), 367-377.
Abstract:
Towards a mechanistic understanding of the effects of body posture on facial emotion categorization
© 2015 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. This study investigated the causes of the face-body congruence effect (FBCE), which refers to the advantage in performance when participants are asked to categorize emotional faces compounded with emotional matching body postures (congruent) compared with incongruent face-body compound stimuli (body postures mismatching the facial emotions). Experiment 1 showed that manipulations aiming to alter holistic processing significantly reduced the FBCE. In particular, the disruption of holistic processing affected significantly the performance for congruent composites. However, no effect was obtained on the incongruent stimuli. In Experiment 2, the inversion manipulation showed a clear disadvantage for incongruent stimuli brought by the disruption of the single feature orientation information. Thus, we found confirmation of the different processing involved in perceiving congruent and incongruent stimuli. Finally, Experiment 3 confirmed that we are able to reduce entirely the FBCE when the orientation of the units (the face and the body) constituting the incongruent composites is matched.
Abstract.
2014
Civile C, Zhao D, Ku Y, Elchlepp H, Lavric A, McLaren IPL (2014). Perceptual learning and inversion effects: Recognition of prototype-defined familiar checkerboards.
J Exp Psychol Anim Learn Cogn,
40(2), 144-161.
Abstract:
Perceptual learning and inversion effects: Recognition of prototype-defined familiar checkerboards.
The face inversion effect is a defection in performance in recognizing inverted faces compared with faces presented in their usual upright orientation typically believed to be specific for facial stimuli. McLaren (1997) was able to demonstrate that (a) an inversion effect could be obtained with exemplars drawn from a familiar category, such that upright exemplars were better discriminated than inverted exemplars; and (b) that the inversion effect required that the familiar category be prototype-defined. In this article, we replicate and extend these findings. We show that the inversion effect can be obtained in a standard old/new recognition memory paradigm, demonstrate that it is contingent on familiarization with a prototype-defined category, and establish that the effect is made up of two components. We confirm the advantage for upright exemplars drawn from a familiar, prototype-defined category, and show that there is a disadvantage for inverted exemplars drawn from this category relative to suitable controls. We also provide evidence that there is an N170 event-related potential signature for this effect. These results allow us to integrate a theory of perceptual learning originally proposed by McLaren, Kaye, and Mackintosh (1989) with explanations of the face inversion effect, first reported by Yin.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
Civile C, Chamizo VD, Mackintosh NJ, McLaren IPL (2014). The effect of disrupting configural information on rats' performance in the Morris water maze.
Learning and MotivationAbstract:
The effect of disrupting configural information on rats' performance in the Morris water maze
Many experiments on spatial navigation suggest that a rat uses the configuration of extra-maze landmarks to guide its choice of arm or location to visit. In the present study, based on Chamizo Rodríguez, Espinet, and Mackintosh's (2012) navigation paradigm, we conducted a series of experiments in which we focused on how changes to the configuration of stimuli surrounding the maze, implemented by transposing the location of both near and far landmarks, significantly affected rats' performance (Experiment1, Test Phase 1). Subsequent tests demonstrated that it was the near landmarks that played the major role in this navigation task (Experiment 1, Test Phases 2 and 3). Experiment 2 provided evidence for a novel type of inversion effect in the water maze, by showing that rotation by 180° of the location of one set of landmarks relative to a directional cue also strongly affected performance. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Abstract.
Full text.
Civile C, McLaren RP, McLaren IPL (2014). The face inversion effect--parts and wholes: individual features and their configuration.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove),
67(4), 728-746.
Abstract:
The face inversion effect--parts and wholes: individual features and their configuration.
The face inversion effect (FIE) is a reduction in recognition performance for inverted faces (compared to upright faces) that is greater than that typically observed with other stimulus types (e.g. houses). The work of Diamond and Carey, suggests that a special type of configural information, "second-order relational information" is critical in generating this inversion effect. However, Tanaka and Farah concluded that greater reliance on second-order relational information did not directly result in greater sensitivity to inversion, and they suggested that the FIE is not entirely due to a reliance on this type of configural information. A more recent review by McKone and Yovel provides a meta-analysis that makes a similar point. In this paper, we investigated the contributions made by configural and featural information to the FIE. Experiments 1a and1b investigated the link between configural information and the FIE. Remarkably, Experiment 1b showed that disruption of all configural information of the type considered in Diamond and Carey's analysis (both first and second order) was effective in reducing recognition performance, but did not significantly impact on the FIE. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that face processing is affected by the orientation of individual features and that this plays a major role in producing the FIE. The FIE was only completely eliminated when we disrupted the single feature orientation information in addition to the configural information, by using a new type of transformation similar to Thatcherizing our sets of scrambled faces. We conclude by noting that our results for scrambled faces are consistent with an account that has recognition performance entirely determined by the proportion of upright facial features within a stimulus, and that any ability to make use of the spatial configuration of these features seems to benefit upright and inverted normal faces alike.
Abstract.
Author URL.
Full text.
2012
Civile C, Elchlepp H, McLaren R, Lavric A, McLaren IPL (2012). Face recognition and brain potentials: Disruption of configural information reduces the face inversion effect. In N. Miyake, D. Peebles, & R. P. Cooper (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society., 1422-1427.
Civile C, Elchlepp H, McLaren R, Lavric A, McLaren IPL (2012). The face inversion effect and evoked brain potentials: Complete loss of configural information affects the N170. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, 1416-1421.
2011
Civile C, McLaren R, McLaren IPL (2011). Perceptual learning and face recognition: Disruption of second-order relational information reduces the face inversion effect. In L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, & T.F. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society., 2083-2088.
McLaren IPL, Civile C (2011). Perceptual learning for a familiar category under inversion: an analogue of face inversion?. In L. Carlson, C. Hoelscher, & T.F. Shipley (Eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, 3320-3325.
