‘Face inversion effect’ on perception of the vertical gaze direction J Stevanov1, M Uesaki1, A Kitaoka2, H Ashida1, H Hecht3 |
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1Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University, Japan |
| ‘Face inversion effect’ refers to impaired recognition of faces when rotated away from the upright position. This study examined ‘gaze inversion effect’, which is introduced as impairment in perception of a gaze direction in inverted faces as compared to upright faces. In the first experiment we manipulated the vertical eye and head orientation in upright and inverted digital images of the real and CG faces. An error in reported gaze locations was particularly large in inverted faces and at large eye-to-head rotation angles. It occurred in the opposite direction to both the eye rotation and the head rotation. The second experiment measured a tolerance range of a mutual gaze in upright and inverted faces. The range of gaze directions within which observers report that the gaze of another person is directed at them characterizes a mutual gaze. Observers were asked to adjust the eyes of the CG generated face to the margins of the mutual gaze area (Gamer and Hecht, 2007, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 33, 705-715). Results showed that the face inversion does not alter direction of the gaze per se, but the tolerance range was substantially larger in inverted faces. |
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