Microgenesis of Face Perception

Abstract

One basic principle of science, which typically applies to psychology, suggests that one should never seek to explain a psychological fact by a mechanism at a higher level if it can be explained by one at a lower level (Morgan, 1894). This seems to be a reasonable principle, and it compels us to attempt to specify and understand the nature of the preliminary operations that underlie a given process. Such a principle is quite relevant to the problem of face perception, and it is with early visual processes, as well as their implications for later operations, that the present chapter will be concerned. It would be misleading, however, to begin with the idea that one can account for most of the processes underlying perception by considering only these early processes, and this is especially true of face perception. For one thing, perception is a process resulting from the interaction of the incoming information and mental states or cerebral structures, and it is therefore necessary to understand the nature and characteristics of this interaction to explain perceptual processes. For another, the human face is an extremely familiar multidimensional pattern, and our frequent exposure to such a stimulus has enabled us to develop certain processing mechanisms, which some authors (e.g, Goldstein & Chance, 1981) have referred to as “schemata,” that allow access to consistent dimensions which facilitate perception and memory.