Chapter 1. Inversion Effect

1.1 Introduction

This experiment replicates an experiment performed by Robert Yin in 1969. It was the first reported use of the inversion technique-which is the experimental manipulation in which faces are turned upside-down-that has been used many times since. It helped psychologists understand a property of recognition that had not been part of the scientific record. Yin’s work has inspired countless other studies on the nature of face-recognition abilities, in humans and in other species. This experiment approaches the face-recognition phenomenon from a cognitive perspective, but other psychologists examine face recognition from other viewpoints, such as neuroscience, forensics, and development. Yin (1969) determined that faces are normally visually processed in a configural manner. Configural refers to processing an entire stimulus as a whole, rather than featurally, or one feature at a time.

References:

Yin, R. K. (1969). Looking at upside-down faces Journal of Experimental Psychology, 81, 141-145.

Yin, R. K. (1970). Face recognition: A special process? Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Yin, R. K. (1970). Face recognition by brain-injured patients: a dissociable ability? Neuropsychologia, 8, 295-402.

1.2 Experiment Setup

1.3 Instructions

You will need to press the space bar to start the experiment. A series of stimuli (faces and houses) will appear in the center of the screen, one at a time. There will be 40 stimuli presented for 3 seconds each. Some of them will appear upright and others will appear upside-down. After a short retention interval (2 minutes), 12 pairs of faces and 12 pairs of houses will appear one after the other. Your task is to identify which stimulus (face or house) in each pair you saw during the first phase of the experiment, known as the study phase.

Keyboard Responses

1.4 Experiment

1.5 Results

1.6 Quiz