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A visual search advantage for illusory faces in objects
Open accessAbstract
Face detection is a priority of both the human and primate visual system. However, occasionally we misperceive faces in inanimate objects -- "face pareidolia". A key feature of these 'false positives' is that face perception occurs in the absence of visual features typical of real faces. Human faces are known to be located faster than objects in visual search. Here we used a visual search paradigm to test whether illusory faces share this advantage. Search times were faster for illusory faces than for matched objects amongst both matched (Experiment 1) and diverse (Experiment 2) distractors, however search times for real human faces were faster and more efficient than objects with or without an illusory face. Importantly, this result indicates that illusory faces are processed quickly enough by the human brain to confer a visual search advantage, suggesting the engagement of a broadly-tuned mechanism that facilitates rapid face detection in cluttered environments.
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The human visual system is faster and more efficient at locating human faces than other objects, including objects with illusory faces.
“The human visual system is faster and more efficient at locating human faces than other objects, including objects with illusory faces (63).”
From Deepfake detection by human crowds, machines, and machine-informed crowds (2022) · cites this paper as [63]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Keys, R. T., Taubert, J., & Wardle, S. G.
- Affiliations
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- Corresponding author
- Keys, Robert T.
- Venue
- Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
- Published
- 2021-03-25
- Volume
- 83
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1942-1953
- ISSN
- 1943-3921 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-393X
- OpenAlex
- W3138284235
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 4.47
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Attention Perception & Psychophysics (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Macquarie University
- Medical Research Council
- National Health and Medical Research Council (1072245)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- face pareidolia, visual search, face detection, face perception, object recognition, distractor interference
- MeSH terms
- Facial Recognition, Face, Humans, Illusions, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Visual Perception
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