Holistic Processing Predicts Face Recognition
Open accessAbstract
The concept of holistic processing is a cornerstone of face-recognition research. In the study reported here, we demonstrated that holistic processing predicts face-recognition abilities on the Cambridge Face Memory Test and on a perceptual face-identification task. Our findings validate a large body of work that relies on the assumption that holistic processing is related to face recognition. These findings also reconcile the study of face recognition with the perceptual-expertise work it inspired; such work links holistic processing of objects with people’s ability to individuate them. Our results differ from those of a recent study showing no link between holistic processing and face recognition. This discrepancy can be attributed to the use in prior research of a popular but flawed measure of holistic processing. Our findings salvage the central role of holistic processing in face recognition and cast doubt on a subset of the face-perception literature that relies on a problematic measure of holistic processing.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Adults are less accurate at recognizing faces when images are inverted or contain misaligned parts.
“adults are less accurate at recognizing faces when images are inverted or contain misaligned parts (60–62).”
From Deepfake detection by human crowds, machines, and machine-informed crowds (2022) · cites this paper as [62]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Journal of personality and social psychology
Armstrong, J. (1988) · International Journal of Forecasting · doi:10.1016/0169-2070(88)90126-4 · Cited by 10,544 · see citing works
The many faces of configural processing
Maurer, D. M., Grand, R. L., & Mondloch, C. J. (2002) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(02)01903-4 · Cited by 2,114 · see citing works
Configurational Information in Face Perception
Young, A. W., Hellawell, D. J., & Hay, D. C. (1987) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p160747 · Cited by 1,358 · see citing works
What is "special" about face perception?
Farah, M. J., Wilson, K. D., Drain, M., & Tanaka, J. N. (1998) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.105.3.482 · Cited by 1,317 · see citing works
Duchaine, B., & Nakayama, K. (2005) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.07.001 · Cited by 1,040 · see citing works
Holistic Processing Is Finely Tuned for Faces of One's Own Race
Michel, C., Rossion, B., Han, J., Chung, C.-S., & Caldara, R. (2006) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01752.x · Cited by 456 · see citing works
Perceptual interference supports a non-modular account of face processing
Gauthier, L., Curran, T., Curby, K. M., & Collins, D. (2003) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1029 · Cited by 437 · see citing works
Unraveling mechanisms for expert object recognition: Bridging brain activity and behavior.
Gauthier, L., & Tarr, M. J. (2002) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037//0096-1523.28.2.431 · Cited by 424 · see citing works
Faces are "spatial"--holistic face perception is supported by low spatial frequencies.
Goffaux, V., & Rossion, B. (2006) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037/0096-1523.32.4.1023 · Cited by 416 · see citing works
Configurational Factors in the Perception of Unfamiliar Faces
HOLE, G. J. (1994) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p230065 · Cited by 373 · see citing works
No face-like processing for objects-of-expertise in three behavioural tasks
Robbins, R. A., & McKone, E. (2006) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2006.02.008 · Cited by 312 · see citing works
Unraveling mechanisms for expert object recognition: Bridging brain activity and behavior.
Gauthier, L., & Tarr, M. J. (2002) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037/0096-1523.28.2.431 · Cited by 302 · see citing works
Conditions for Facelike Expertise With Objects
Wong, A. C. ‐., Palmeri, T. J., & Gauthier, L. (2009) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02430.x · Cited by 225 · see citing works
What aspects of face processing are impaired in developmental prosopagnosia?
Grand, R. L., Cooper, P. A., Mondloch, C. J., Lewis, T. L., Sagiv, N., de Gelder, B., & Maurer, D. M. (2006) · Brain and Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2005.11.005 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
Fusiform gyrus face-selectivity reflects facial recognition ability
Furl, N., Garrido, L., Dolan, R., Driver, J., & Duchaine, B. (2010) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2010.21545 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
Individual differences in perceiving and recognizing faces—One element of social cognition.
Wilhelm, O., Herzmann, G., Kunina‐Habenicht, O., Danthiir, V., Schacht, A., & Sommer, W. (2010) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0019972 · Cited by 195 · see citing works
Holistic face processing is mature at 4 years of age: Evidence from the composite face effect
de Heering, A., Houthuys, S., & Rossion, B. (2006) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2006.07.001 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
Inverted faces are (eventually) processed holistically
Richler, J. J., Mack, M. L., Palmeri, T. J., & Gauthier, L. (2010) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2010.11.014 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Self-citationHolistic Processing Is Not Correlated With Face-Identification Accuracy
Konar, Y., Bennett, P., & Sekuler, A. B. (2009) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797609356508 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
Revisiting the role of spatial frequencies in the holistic processing of faces.
Cheung, O. S., Richler, J. J., Palmeri, T. J., & Gauthier, L. (2008) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · doi:10.1037/a0011752 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Self-citationHolistic processing of faces happens at a glance
Richler, J. J., Mack, M. L., Gauthier, L., et al. (2009) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2009.08.025 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Self-citationWhy does selective attention to parts fail in face processing?
Richler, J. J., Tanaka, J. W., Brown, D. D., et al. (2008) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Learning Memory and Cognition · doi:10.1037/a0013080 · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Self-citationOrganization of face and object recognition in modular neural network models
Dailey, M. N., & Cottrell, G. W. (1999) · Neural Networks · doi:10.1016/s0893-6080(99)00050-7 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
The composite face effect in six-year-old children: Evidence of adult-like holistic face processing
Mondloch, C. J., Pathman, T., Maurer, D. M., Grand, R. L., & de Schonen, S. (2006) · Visual Cognition · doi:10.1080/13506280600859383 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Cassia, V. M., Picozzi, M., Kuefner, D., Bricolo, E., & Turati, C. (2008) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00765.x · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Limits of generalization between categories and implications for theories of category specificity
Bukach, C. M., Phillips, W. S., & Gauthier, L. (2010) · Attention Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/app.72.7.1865 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Beyond Shape: How You Learn about Objects Affects How They Are Represented in Visual Cortex
Wong, A. C. ‐., Palmeri, T. J., Rogers, B. P., Gore, J. C., & Gauthier, L. (2009) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008405 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
A Multimodal Neural Network Recruited by Expertise with Musical Notation
Wong, Y. K., & Gauthier, L. (2009) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21229 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Context influences holistic processing of nonface objects in the composite task
Richler, J. J., Bukach, C. M., & Gauthier, L. (2009) · Attention Perception & Psychophysics · doi:10.3758/app.71.3.530 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Self-citationThe evidence rejects the expertise hypothesis: Reply to Gauthier & Bukach
McKone, E., & Robbins, R. A. (2007) · Cognition · doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2006.05.014 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Spatial interactions in upright and inverted faces: Re-exploration of spatial scale influence
Goffaux, V. (2009) · Vision Research · doi:10.1016/j.visres.2009.02.009 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Configural processing in face recognition in schizophrenia
Schwartz, B. L., Marvel, C. L., Drapalski, A. L., Rosse, R. B., & Deutsch, S. I. (2002) · Cognitive Neuropsychiatry · doi:10.1080/13546800143000113 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Individual differences in face cognition
Herzmann, G. (2008) · edoc Publication server (Humboldt University of Berlin) · doi:10.18452/15789 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A meta-analysis and review of holistic face processing.
Richler, J. J., & Gauthier, I. (2014) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0037004 · Cited by 340 · see citing works
Self-citationDeepfake detection by human crowds, machines, and machine-informed crowds
Groh, M., Epstein, Z., Firestone, C., & Picard, R. (2022) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2110013119 · Cited by 248 · see citing works
Ericsson, K. A. (2014) · Intelligence · doi:10.1016/j.intell.2013.12.001 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
- Authors
- Richler, J. J., Cheung, O. S., & Gauthier, I.
- Affiliations
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Vanderbilt University
- Corresponding author
- Richler, Jennifer J.
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-03-10
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 464-471
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC3077885
- OpenAlex
- W2128854499
- Cited by
- 341
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 27
- FWCI
- 15.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- James S. McDonnell Foundation
- National Eye Institute (R01EY013441, P30EY008126)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Face recognition and analysis
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- holistic processing, face recognition (cognition), face memory, Cambridge Face Memory Test, perceptual expertise, face individuation, face perception
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Cognition, Face, Female, Humans, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Recognition, Psychology
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
