Natalie Mestry

Bournemouth University | BU · Department of Psychology

The efficiency of visual search for one (single-target) and either of two (dual-target) unfamiliar faces was explored to understand the manifestations of capacity and guidance limitations in face search. The visual similarity of distractor faces to target faces was manipulated using morphing (Experiments 1 and 2) and multidimensional scaling (Exper...

The Thatcher illusion (Thompson in Perception, 9, 483-484, 1980) is often explained as resulting from recognising a distortion of configural information when 'Thatcherised' faces are upright but not when inverted. However, recent behavioural studies suggest that there is an absence of perceptual configurality in upright Thatcherised faces (Donnelly...

Participants performed three feature-complete face processing tasks involving detection of changes in: (1) feature size and (2) feature identity in successive matching tasks, and (3) feature orientation. In each experiment, information in the top (eyes) and bottom (mouths) parts of faces were manipulated. All tasks were performed with upright and i...

We report data from a prosopagnosic patient (PHD), and aged-matched control participants, from experiments where participants categorised individually presented emotional faces (Experiment 1) and Thatcherised (from typical) faces (Experiment 2). In Experiment 2 participants also discriminated between simultaneously presented Thatcherised and typica...

There is a major shift taking place in airports across the globe, changing from 2D dual-view X-ray screening to 3D computed tomography (CT) screening. 3D CT screening is believed to improve target detection since it enables screeners to interact with images of passenger baggage (i.e., rotating and zooming into the displays). The change in screening...

Two experiments explored the search for pairs of faces in a disjunctive dual-target face search (DDTFS) task for unfamiliar face targets. The distinctiveness of the target was manipulated such that both faces were typical or distinctive or contained one typical and one distinctive target. Targets were searched for in arrays of eight faces. In Exper...

The visual inspection of scenes is disrupted when participants are forced to begin inspection away from the centre of an image. The present study explored the effect of the starting point on the visual inspection of paintings. Eye movements were recorded while participants viewed paintings for later identification in a yes/no discrimination task. T...

There is growing interest in how data-driven approaches can help understand individual differences in face identity processing (FIP). However, researchers employ various FIP tests interchangeably, and it is unclear whether these tests 1) measure the same underlying ability/ies and processes (e.g., confirmation of identity match or elimination of id...

In the last decade, a novel individual differences approach has emerged across the face recognition literature. While the field has long been concerned with prosopagnosia (the inability to recognise facial identity), it has more recently become clear that there are vast differences in face recognition ability within the typical population. “Super-r...

Increasing evidence suggests vast individual differences in face-matching performance in both lay perceivers and relevant professionals. However, the field is hampered by a paucity of psychometric-standard assessment tasks. This chapter reviews the current evidence supporting individual differences in face matching, in light of the reliability of t...

It has long been known that premature birth and/or low birthweight can lead to general difficulties in cognitive and emotional functioning throughout childhood. However, the influence of these factors on more specific processes has seldom been addressed, despite their potential to account for wide individual differences in performance that often ap...

Increasing evidence suggests vast individual differences in face matching performance in both lay perceivers and relevant professionals. However, the field is hampered by a paucity of psychometric-standard assessment tasks. This chapter reviews the current evidence supporting individual differences in face matching, in light of the reliability of t...

The spectatorship of portraits by naïve viewers (beholders) was explored in a singleexperiment. Twenty-five participants rated their liking for 142 portraits painted by Courbet (36 paintings), Fantin-Latour (36 paintings) and Manet (70 paintings) on a 4-point Likert scale. The portraits were classified in terms of focussed versus ambiguous nature o...

While there has been growing interest in the deployment of superior face recognizers in policing and security settings, it is likely that most real‐world tasks tap person rather than face recognition skills. We suggest that changes in real‐world screening tasks and terminology are required to distinguish these individuals from laboratory‐identified...

Participants judged 94 portraits painted by Édouard Manet (70), Gustave Courbet (12) and Henri Fantin-Latour (12) for horizontal and vertical pupil misalignment and gaze ambiguity (Experiment 1) and focal point of gaze (Experiment 2). Eye movements were also measured as participants considered the extent to which sitters in the same portraits ackno...

In standard visual search tasks, targets appear on 50% of trials. This contrasts with real-world searches in which targets can be very rare indeed, such as airport screening. Previous work examining target prevalence (defined as the proportion of trials that contain a target) has found that, as prevalence increases, participants become increasingly...

Previously (VSS 2015) we presented data from two experiments showing a cost in dual-target search for two unfamiliar faces, in which accuracy was lower than searching for the faces separately. Guidance of attention towards target-similar items in dual-target search was very limited at most. In these experiments we manipulated the visual similarity...

Visual search is slower and less accurate when trying to find more than one target object, referred to as the dual-target cost, and reduced attentional guidance has been shown to be the cause (e.g. Menneer et al., 2012). Studies in the eye-witness domain have shown the presence of two target faces reduces accuracy of identifying a single target fac...

Both orientation and Thatcherisation are thought to influence configural processing in faces (Boutsen, Humphreys, Praamastra & Warbrick, 2006). We explored the effect of orientation and level of Thatcherisation (typical face, eyes Thatcherised, mouth Thatcherised, or both features Thatcherised) on early ERP components. Participants showed evidence...

Prior work on the Thatcher illusion (Cornes et al., 2011; Mestry et al., 2012) has indicated both perceptual and decisional components of the illusion. We provide evidence of neural correlates associated with independent influences of inversion and level of feature manipulation (Thatcherisation) in the Thatcher illusion. We also provide an account...

Absence of a precise definition of configural processing in face perception has resulted in previous demonstrations now being accounted for by decisional rather than perceptual processes(Wenger & Ingvalson, 2002, 2003; Richler, Gauthier, Wenger, & Palmeri, 2008; Cornes, Donnelly, Godwin, & Wenger, 2011). In this thesis, I show that many of the diff...

Thatcherisation of facial features is immediately apparent only in upright faces. Detection of Thatcherisation is therefore widely upheld as being dependent on configural processing. Configural processing has clear predictions of perceptual dependence between facial features and of supercapacity processing. Perceptual dependence: Configurality in...

Behavioural studies using the Thatcher illusion are usually assumed to demonstrate configurality in upright face processing. Previously, we have reported on PHD, an individual with prosopagnosia, could not discriminate Thatcherized faces but showed some evidence for residual face processing (VSS, 08). Recent functional imaging data suggests a role...

Behavioural studies using the Thatcher illusion are usually assumed to demonstrate configurality in upright face processing. Previously, we have reported on PHD, an individual with prosopagnosia, could not discriminate Thatcherized faces but showed some evidence for residual face processing (VSS, 09). Recent functional imaging data suggests a role...

We explored configural face processing in a prosopagnosic patient (PHD, Eimer and McCarthy, 1999) who does not produce an N170 is response for faces. In two sets of studies he was presented with two versions of the Thatcher illusion. In the first set, he was asked to detect Thatcherized from matched typical faces from successive single presentation...

We explored configural face processing in a prosopagnosic patient (PHD, Eimer and McCarthy, 1999) who does not produce an N170 is response for faces. In two sets of studies he was presented with two versions of the Thatcher illusion. In the first set, he was asked to detect Thatcherized from matched typical faces from successive single presentation...