Jürgen M Kaufmann - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Jürgen M Kaufmann

Experiment 1 of Samaneh's thesis

Neuropsychologia, Aug 1, 2015

Increased early negativity to repeated faces over inferior temporal regions around 200-300 ms has... more Increased early negativity to repeated faces over inferior temporal regions around 200-300 ms has been related to the reactivation of mental representations of individual identities of familiar faces. Since this modulation is larger for same-image (compared to different-image) repetitions of a familiar face, it is debated whether it reflects physical stimulus similarity between prime and target, or reactivation of perceived representations of identity. In Experiment 1 participants performed a four-choice identification task on famous target faces, which were always preceded by the same average face. This average face served as prime stimulus. Crucially, by adapting participants to specific anti-faces, we induced different illusory facial identities (cf. Leopold, O'Toole, Vetter, & Blanz, 2001) in the same physical prime. Importantly, temporal ERPs (~ 155-235 ms) were significantly more negative for "Primed" than for "Unprimed" trials. In Experiment 2, we determined whether this effect was due to the encoding of shape information, by using anti-shape adaptors with constant average reflectance information. Priming by these anti-shape adapted average primes did not elicit a similar temporal ERP modulation. We conclude that these early temporal ERP modulations evoked by a combination of anti-face adaptation and immediaterepetition priming represent a neural correlate of the activation of mental representations of individual familiar faces. These identity specific representations can be triggered even by physically identical prime stimuli, when preceded by corresponding anti-face adaptation.

PLOS ONE, May 11, 2016

According to the norm-based version of the multidimensional face space model (nMDFS, Valentine, 1... more According to the norm-based version of the multidimensional face space model (nMDFS, Valentine, 1991), any given face and its corresponding anti-face (which deviates from the norm in exactly opposite direction as the original face) should be equidistant to a hypothetical prototype face (norm), such that by definition face and anti-face should bear the same level of perceived typicality. However, it has been argued that familiarity affects perceived typicality and that representations of familiar faces are qualitatively different (e.g., more robust and image-independent) from those for unfamiliar faces. Here we investigated the role of face familiarity for rated typicality, using two frequently used operationalisations of typicality (deviation-based: DEV), and distinctiveness (face in the crowd: FITC) for faces of celebrities and their corresponding anti-faces. We further assessed attractiveness, likeability and trustworthiness ratings of the stimuli, which are potentially related to typicality. For unfamiliar faces and their corresponding anti-faces, in line with the predictions of the nMDFS, our results demonstrate comparable levels of perceived typicality (DEV). In contrast, familiar faces were perceived much less typical than their anti-faces. Furthermore, familiar faces were rated higher than their anti-faces in distinctiveness, attractiveness, likability and trustworthiness. These findings suggest that familiarity strongly affects the distribution of facial representations in norm-based face space. Overall, our study suggests (1) that familiarity needs to be considered in studies of mental representations of faces, and (2) that familiarity, general distance-to-norm and more specific vector directions in face space make different and interactive contributions to different types of facial evaluations.

Cognitive Brain Research, Aug 1, 2005

In ''Thatcherized'' faces, the eyes and mouth regions are turned upside-down. Only when presented... more In ''Thatcherized'' faces, the eyes and mouth regions are turned upside-down. Only when presented upright they are perceived as severely distorted. Common theories explain this effect by the loss of configural information for inverted faces. We investigated neural correlates of Thatcherization using event related potentials (ERPs). Sixteen right-handed participants performed identity classifications on Thatcherized or original familiar faces, presented either for 34 ms or 200 ms at an orientation of either 0-, 90-or 180-. For the occipito-temporal N170, we found (1) strong non-linear effects of orientation and (2) interactions between Thatcherization and orientation: Thatcherization resulted in larger N170 for upright faces, but smaller N170 for inverted faces. The novel finding of N170 effects of Thatcherization in inverted faces suggests differences in the neural encoding of Thatcherized and original inverted faces, even though Thatcherization escapes subjective perception in inverted faces.

Journal of Vision, Sep 1, 2015

Increased early negativity to repeated faces over right inferior temporal regions around 200-300 ... more Increased early negativity to repeated faces over right inferior temporal regions around 200-300 ms has been related to the reactivation of mental representations of individual identities of familiar faces. Since this modulation is typically larger for same-image (compared to different-image) repetitions of a familiar face, it is debated whether it reflects physical stimulus similarity between prime and target, or reactivation of perceived representations of identity. In an EEG-study participants performed a four-choice identification task on famous target faces (1500 ms), which were always preceded by the same average face (500 ms, prime-target SOA 1500 ms). Crucially, by adapting participants to specific anti-faces (5000 ms), we induced different illusory facial identites (cf. Leopold et al., 2001) in the same physical prime stimulus. Importantly, right temporal negativity (~155-400) was significantly larger for "Primed" than "Unprimed" trials (when pre-prime adaptation involved the anti-face specifically corresponding to the target face, vs. a non-corresponding anti-face). We conclude that right temporal negativity in the time range of the P200 and N250r is a neural correlate of the activation of mental representations of individual familiar faces, even when the physical stimulus is kept constant. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.

Brain Research, Dec 1, 2007

Recent studies have identified a prominent face-selective ERP response to immediate repetitions o... more Recent studies have identified a prominent face-selective ERP response to immediate repetitions of faces ∼ 250 ms (N250r) which was strongly attenuated or eliminated for control stimuli (Schweinberger, Huddy, and Burton 2004, NeuroReport, 15, 1501-1505). In the present study we used a 148-channel whole head neuromagnetometer to investigate event-related magnetic fields (ERMFs) elicited by repetitions of exemplars of human faces, inverted human faces, primate faces, and car fronts. Participants counted rare pictures of butterflies interspersed in a series of pairs of one of these categories. The second stimulus of each pair could either be a repetition or a non-repetition of the first stimulus. We observed prominent M100 (90-140 ms) and M170 (140-220 ms) responses. Both M100 and M170 were insensitive to repetition and showed little differences between stimulus categories, except for a slight increase and delay of M170 to inverted faces. By contrast, we observed a repetition-sensitive M250r response (220-330 ms). This M250r was larger for upright human and primate faces when compared to both inverted human faces and cars, a finding that was specific for right hemispheric sensors. Source localization suggested different generators for M170 and M250r in occipitotemporal and fusiform areas, respectively. These findings suggest that repetitionsensitive brain activity ∼ 250 ms reflects the transient activation of object representations, with largest responses for upright faces, in the right hemisphere.

British Journal of Psychology, Sep 16, 2022

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Oct 1, 2007

While audiovisual integration is well known in speech perception, faces and speech are also infor... more While audiovisual integration is well known in speech perception, faces and speech are also informative with respect to speaker recognition. To date, audiovisual integration in the recognition of familiar people has never been demonstrated. Here we show systematic benefits and costs for the recognition of familiar voices when these are combined with time-synchronized articulating faces, of corresponding or noncorresponding speaker identity, respectively. While these effects were strong for familiar voices, they were smaller or nonsignificant for unfamiliar voices, suggesting that the effects depend on the previous creation of a multimodal representation of a person's identity. Moreover, the effects were reduced or eliminated when voices were combined with the same faces presented as static pictures, demonstrating that the effects do not simply reflect the use of facial identity as a “cue” for voice recognition. This is the first direct evidence for audiovisual integration in person recognition.

Journal of Vision, Sep 1, 2015

The underlying mechanisms for inter-individual differences in face recognition ability are still ... more The underlying mechanisms for inter-individual differences in face recognition ability are still poorly understood. We investigated whether participants performing high or low in a Famous Face Recognition Test differ in effects of face priming. Identity self-priming typically results in behavioural benefits and consistent event-related potential (ERP) modulations, even when familiar target faces are preceded by different (Schweinberger et al., 2002) or geometrically distorted (Bindemann et al., 2008) images of the same identity. This argues for robust, largely image- independent representations of familiar faces, a prerequisite for the ability to put different images of the same identity together (Jenkins et al., 2011). Here, we tested in good and poor recognizers, whether face representations can also be activated by faces of different identities, when these look similar to familiar targets. In an immediate-repetition-priming paradigm, famous target faces were either preceded by i) a different image of the famous face, ii) the face of a "lookalike", i.e. an unfamiliar face resembling the famous target face in appearance, or iii) a different famous face. Participants performed a face familiarity task on the targets. In addition to response times and accuracies, ERPs for target faces were analyzed. First, in line with previous studies, repetition priming effects occurred when famous faces were preceded by different images of the same faces (RT, ACC, P200, N250r, N400). Second, attenuated repetition priming effects were found when famous target faces were preceded by faces of unfamiliar lookalikes (RT, ACC, N250r, N400). Third, repetition priming effects in the N250r and N400 for lookalike primes were more reliable for participants with high face recognition skills. This suggests that i) mental representations in good recognizers are characterized by a larger flexibility, and ii) that high and low performers also differ at the level of post perceptual access to semantic information about familiar persons. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.

Journal of Vision, Aug 10, 2012

Perception, May 1, 2005

We investigated the influence of task-irrelevant speaker variations on speechreading performance.... more We investigated the influence of task-irrelevant speaker variations on speechreading performance. In three experiments with video digitised faces presented either in dynamic, static-sequential, or static mode, participants performed speeded classifications on vowel utterances (German vowels /u/ and /i/). A Garner interference paradigm was used, in which speaker identity was task-irrelevant but could be either correlated, constant, or orthogonal to the vowel uttered. Reaction times for facial speech classifications were slowed by task-irrelevant speaker variations for dynamic stimuli. The results are discussed with reference to distributed models of face perception (Haxby et al, 2000 Trends in Cognitive Sciences4 223–233) and the relevance of both dynamic information and speaker characteristics for speechreading.

Cerebral Cortex, Nov 21, 2012

Participants are more accurate at remembering faces of their own relative to another ethnic group... more Participants are more accurate at remembering faces of their own relative to another ethnic group (own-race bias, ORB). This phenomenon has been explained by reduced perceptual expertise, or alternatively, by the categorization of other-race faces into social outgroups and reduced effort to individuate such faces. We examined event-related potential (ERP) correlates of the ORB, testing recognition memory for Asian and Caucasian faces in Caucasian and Asian participants. Both groups demonstrated a significant ORB in recognition memory. ERPs revealed more negative N170 amplitudes for other-race faces in both groups, probably reflecting more effortful structural encoding. Importantly, the ethnicity effect in left-hemispheric N170 during learning correlated significantly with the behavioral ORB. Similarly, in the subsequent N250, both groups demonstrated more negative amplitudes for other-race faces, and during test phases, this effect correlated significantly with the ORB. We suggest that ethnicity effects in the N170 reflect an early categorization of other-race faces into a social out-group, resulting in less efficient encoding and thus decreased memory. Moreover, ethnicity effects in the N250 may represent the "tagging" of other-race faces as perceptually salient, which hampers the recognition of these faces.

Experimental Brain Research, Aug 25, 2021

Modifying established motor skills is a challenging endeavor due to proactive interference from u... more Modifying established motor skills is a challenging endeavor due to proactive interference from undesired old to desired new actions, calling for high levels of cognitive control. Motor restrictions may facilitate the modification of motor skills by rendering undesired responses physically impossible, thus reducing demands to response inhibition. Here we studied behavioral and EEG effects of rule changes to typing in skilled touch-typists. The respective rule change-typing without using the left index finger-was either implemented per instruction only or with an additional motor restriction. In both groups, the rule change elicited delays and more errors in typing, indicating the occurrence of proactive interference. While stimulus-locked ERPs did not exhibit prominent effects of rule change or group, response-locked ERPs revealed that the time courses of preparatory brain activity preceding typing responses depended on the presence of motor restriction. Although further research is necessary to corroborate our findings, they indicate a novel brain correlate that represents changes in inhibitory response preparation induced by short-term motor restrictions.

Biological Psychology, Jul 1, 2021

Changing pre-existing, automatized motor skills often requires interference control. Prepotent re... more Changing pre-existing, automatized motor skills often requires interference control. Prepotent response inhibition - one subdimension of inhibition - has been theorized to be particularly associated with successful interference control in motor skills. Recent evidence suggests that different inhibition subdimensions elicit distinct ERP patterns (with larger P3 components for response inhibition). Therefore, we examined whether a similar ERP pattern would arise in a task demanding participants to overcome interference emerging from strong motor automatisms. This was realized within a typing paradigm involving a letter switch manipulation which is able to produce strong, immediate interference effects. Most importantly, stimulus-locked ERP analyses revealed an enhanced P3 component at frontal, central and most pronouncedly parietal sites for interference trials, in line with previous reported patterns for response inhibition. Together, different analyses provide first insights into the electrophysiological correlates of motor skill change, corroborating the pivotal role of response inhibition for successful interference control.

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, Oct 7, 2016

Recent findings show benefits for learning and subsequent recognition of faces caricatured in sha... more Recent findings show benefits for learning and subsequent recognition of faces caricatured in shape or texture, but there is little evidence on whether this caricature learning advantage generalizes to recognition of veridical counterparts at test. Moreover, it has been reported that there is a relatively higher contribution of texture information, at the expense of shape information, for familiar compared to unfamiliar face recognition. The aim of this study was to examine whether veridical faces are recognized better when they were learned as caricatures compared to when they were learned as veridicals-what we call a caricature generalization benefit. Photorealistic facial stimuli derived from a 3-D camera system were caricatured selectively in either shape or texture by 50 %. Faces were learned across different images either as veridicals, shape caricatures, or texture caricatures. At test, all learned and novel faces were presented as previously unseen frontal veridicals, and participants performed an old-new task. We assessed accuracies, reaction times, and face-sensitive eventrelated potentials (ERPs). Faces learned as caricatures were recognized more accurately than faces learned as veridicals. At learning, N250 and LPC were largest for shape caricatures, suggesting encoding advantages of distinctive facial shape. At test, LPC was largest for faces that had been learned as texture caricatures, indicating the importance of texture for familiar face recognition. Overall, our findings demonstrate that caricature learning advantages can generalize to and, importantly, improve recognition of veridical versions of faces.

Brain Research, Oct 1, 2006

We assessed hemispheric differences in font-specific and abstractive repetition priming for famou... more We assessed hemispheric differences in font-specific and abstractive repetition priming for famous persons' names. Participants performed speeded familiarity judgments for foveally presented famous and unfamiliar names. Famous target names were preceded by primes (150 ms) in the left or right visual field (LVF or RVF). Primes were either the same name as the target written in the same font (font-specific priming), the same name in a different font (abstractive priming), or a different name (unprimed condition). In reaction times, LH superiority was strong for abstractive priming across fonts, but was reduced to insignificance for font-specific priming. We observed 3 different ERP modulations of priming for target names: a small font-specific posterior N200 (160-220 ms), a left temporal N250r (220-300 ms), and an N400 modulation (300-500 ms). The left temporal N250r exhibited large and abstractive priming for RVF primes, but smaller and font-specific priming for LVF primes. N400 effects were observed in all priming conditions. With respect to previous findings that N200, N250r, and N400 reflect facilitation at the levels of font-specific encoding, lexical entries for names, and semantic processing, respectively, these findings suggest that the LH superiority for name processing is particularly pronounced for the access to abstractive lexical entries for written names, a process that may be mediated by the left fusiform cortex.

Neuropsychologia, 2002

We investigated repetition priming in the recognition of famous people by recording event-related... more We investigated repetition priming in the recognition of famous people by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and reaction times (RTs). Participants performed speeded two-choice responses depending on whether or not a stimulus showed a famous person. In Experiment 1, a facilitation was found in RTs to famous (but not to unfamiliar) faces when primed by the same face shown in an earlier priming phase of the experiment. In ERPs, an influence of repetition priming was observed neither for the N170 nor for a temporal N250 component which in previous studies had been shown to be sensitive to immediate face repetitions. ERPs to primed unfamiliar faces were more negative over right occipitotemporal areas than those to unprimed faces, but this effect was specific for repetitions of the same image, consistent with recent findings. In contrast, ERPs to primed familiar faces were more positive than those to unprimed faces at parietal sites from 500-600 ms after face onset, and these priming effects were comparable regardless of whether the same or a different image of the celebrity had served as prime. In Experiment 2, similar results were found for name recognition-a facilitation in RTs to primed familiar but not unfamiliar names, and a parietal positivity to primed names around 500-600 ms. ERP repetition effects showed comparable topographies for faces and names, consistent with the idea of a common underlying source. With reference to current models of face recognition, we suggest that these ERP repetition effects for familiar stimuli reflect a change in post-perceptual representations for people, rather than a neural correlate of recognition at a perceptual level.

Valentine’s influential norm-based multidimensional face-space model (nMDFS) predicts that percei... more Valentine’s influential norm-based multidimensional face-space model (nMDFS) predicts that perceived distinctiveness increases with distance to the norm. Occipito-temporal event-related potentials (ERPs) have been recently shown to respond selectively to variations in distance-to-norm (P200) or familiarity (N250, late negativity), respectively (Wuttke & Schweinberger, 2019). Despite growing evidence on interindividual differences in face perception skills at the behavioral level, little research has focused on their electrophysiological correlates. To reveal potential interindividual differences in face spaces, we contrasted high and low performers in face recognition in regards to distance-to-norm (P200) and familiarity (N250). We replicated both the P200 distance-to-norm and the N250 familiarity effect. Importantly, we observed: i) reduced responses in low compared to high performers of face recognition, especially in terms of smaller distance-to-norm effects in the P200, possibly...

Experiment 1 of Samaneh's thesis

Neuropsychologia, Aug 1, 2015

Increased early negativity to repeated faces over inferior temporal regions around 200-300 ms has... more Increased early negativity to repeated faces over inferior temporal regions around 200-300 ms has been related to the reactivation of mental representations of individual identities of familiar faces. Since this modulation is larger for same-image (compared to different-image) repetitions of a familiar face, it is debated whether it reflects physical stimulus similarity between prime and target, or reactivation of perceived representations of identity. In Experiment 1 participants performed a four-choice identification task on famous target faces, which were always preceded by the same average face. This average face served as prime stimulus. Crucially, by adapting participants to specific anti-faces, we induced different illusory facial identities (cf. Leopold, O'Toole, Vetter, & Blanz, 2001) in the same physical prime. Importantly, temporal ERPs (~ 155-235 ms) were significantly more negative for "Primed" than for "Unprimed" trials. In Experiment 2, we determined whether this effect was due to the encoding of shape information, by using anti-shape adaptors with constant average reflectance information. Priming by these anti-shape adapted average primes did not elicit a similar temporal ERP modulation. We conclude that these early temporal ERP modulations evoked by a combination of anti-face adaptation and immediaterepetition priming represent a neural correlate of the activation of mental representations of individual familiar faces. These identity specific representations can be triggered even by physically identical prime stimuli, when preceded by corresponding anti-face adaptation.

PLOS ONE, May 11, 2016

According to the norm-based version of the multidimensional face space model (nMDFS, Valentine, 1... more According to the norm-based version of the multidimensional face space model (nMDFS, Valentine, 1991), any given face and its corresponding anti-face (which deviates from the norm in exactly opposite direction as the original face) should be equidistant to a hypothetical prototype face (norm), such that by definition face and anti-face should bear the same level of perceived typicality. However, it has been argued that familiarity affects perceived typicality and that representations of familiar faces are qualitatively different (e.g., more robust and image-independent) from those for unfamiliar faces. Here we investigated the role of face familiarity for rated typicality, using two frequently used operationalisations of typicality (deviation-based: DEV), and distinctiveness (face in the crowd: FITC) for faces of celebrities and their corresponding anti-faces. We further assessed attractiveness, likeability and trustworthiness ratings of the stimuli, which are potentially related to typicality. For unfamiliar faces and their corresponding anti-faces, in line with the predictions of the nMDFS, our results demonstrate comparable levels of perceived typicality (DEV). In contrast, familiar faces were perceived much less typical than their anti-faces. Furthermore, familiar faces were rated higher than their anti-faces in distinctiveness, attractiveness, likability and trustworthiness. These findings suggest that familiarity strongly affects the distribution of facial representations in norm-based face space. Overall, our study suggests (1) that familiarity needs to be considered in studies of mental representations of faces, and (2) that familiarity, general distance-to-norm and more specific vector directions in face space make different and interactive contributions to different types of facial evaluations.

Cognitive Brain Research, Aug 1, 2005

In ''Thatcherized'' faces, the eyes and mouth regions are turned upside-down. Only when presented... more In ''Thatcherized'' faces, the eyes and mouth regions are turned upside-down. Only when presented upright they are perceived as severely distorted. Common theories explain this effect by the loss of configural information for inverted faces. We investigated neural correlates of Thatcherization using event related potentials (ERPs). Sixteen right-handed participants performed identity classifications on Thatcherized or original familiar faces, presented either for 34 ms or 200 ms at an orientation of either 0-, 90-or 180-. For the occipito-temporal N170, we found (1) strong non-linear effects of orientation and (2) interactions between Thatcherization and orientation: Thatcherization resulted in larger N170 for upright faces, but smaller N170 for inverted faces. The novel finding of N170 effects of Thatcherization in inverted faces suggests differences in the neural encoding of Thatcherized and original inverted faces, even though Thatcherization escapes subjective perception in inverted faces.

Journal of Vision, Sep 1, 2015

Increased early negativity to repeated faces over right inferior temporal regions around 200-300 ... more Increased early negativity to repeated faces over right inferior temporal regions around 200-300 ms has been related to the reactivation of mental representations of individual identities of familiar faces. Since this modulation is typically larger for same-image (compared to different-image) repetitions of a familiar face, it is debated whether it reflects physical stimulus similarity between prime and target, or reactivation of perceived representations of identity. In an EEG-study participants performed a four-choice identification task on famous target faces (1500 ms), which were always preceded by the same average face (500 ms, prime-target SOA 1500 ms). Crucially, by adapting participants to specific anti-faces (5000 ms), we induced different illusory facial identites (cf. Leopold et al., 2001) in the same physical prime stimulus. Importantly, right temporal negativity (~155-400) was significantly larger for "Primed" than "Unprimed" trials (when pre-prime adaptation involved the anti-face specifically corresponding to the target face, vs. a non-corresponding anti-face). We conclude that right temporal negativity in the time range of the P200 and N250r is a neural correlate of the activation of mental representations of individual familiar faces, even when the physical stimulus is kept constant. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.

Brain Research, Dec 1, 2007

Recent studies have identified a prominent face-selective ERP response to immediate repetitions o... more Recent studies have identified a prominent face-selective ERP response to immediate repetitions of faces ∼ 250 ms (N250r) which was strongly attenuated or eliminated for control stimuli (Schweinberger, Huddy, and Burton 2004, NeuroReport, 15, 1501-1505). In the present study we used a 148-channel whole head neuromagnetometer to investigate event-related magnetic fields (ERMFs) elicited by repetitions of exemplars of human faces, inverted human faces, primate faces, and car fronts. Participants counted rare pictures of butterflies interspersed in a series of pairs of one of these categories. The second stimulus of each pair could either be a repetition or a non-repetition of the first stimulus. We observed prominent M100 (90-140 ms) and M170 (140-220 ms) responses. Both M100 and M170 were insensitive to repetition and showed little differences between stimulus categories, except for a slight increase and delay of M170 to inverted faces. By contrast, we observed a repetition-sensitive M250r response (220-330 ms). This M250r was larger for upright human and primate faces when compared to both inverted human faces and cars, a finding that was specific for right hemispheric sensors. Source localization suggested different generators for M170 and M250r in occipitotemporal and fusiform areas, respectively. These findings suggest that repetitionsensitive brain activity ∼ 250 ms reflects the transient activation of object representations, with largest responses for upright faces, in the right hemisphere.

British Journal of Psychology, Sep 16, 2022

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Oct 1, 2007

While audiovisual integration is well known in speech perception, faces and speech are also infor... more While audiovisual integration is well known in speech perception, faces and speech are also informative with respect to speaker recognition. To date, audiovisual integration in the recognition of familiar people has never been demonstrated. Here we show systematic benefits and costs for the recognition of familiar voices when these are combined with time-synchronized articulating faces, of corresponding or noncorresponding speaker identity, respectively. While these effects were strong for familiar voices, they were smaller or nonsignificant for unfamiliar voices, suggesting that the effects depend on the previous creation of a multimodal representation of a person's identity. Moreover, the effects were reduced or eliminated when voices were combined with the same faces presented as static pictures, demonstrating that the effects do not simply reflect the use of facial identity as a “cue” for voice recognition. This is the first direct evidence for audiovisual integration in person recognition.

Journal of Vision, Sep 1, 2015

The underlying mechanisms for inter-individual differences in face recognition ability are still ... more The underlying mechanisms for inter-individual differences in face recognition ability are still poorly understood. We investigated whether participants performing high or low in a Famous Face Recognition Test differ in effects of face priming. Identity self-priming typically results in behavioural benefits and consistent event-related potential (ERP) modulations, even when familiar target faces are preceded by different (Schweinberger et al., 2002) or geometrically distorted (Bindemann et al., 2008) images of the same identity. This argues for robust, largely image- independent representations of familiar faces, a prerequisite for the ability to put different images of the same identity together (Jenkins et al., 2011). Here, we tested in good and poor recognizers, whether face representations can also be activated by faces of different identities, when these look similar to familiar targets. In an immediate-repetition-priming paradigm, famous target faces were either preceded by i) a different image of the famous face, ii) the face of a "lookalike", i.e. an unfamiliar face resembling the famous target face in appearance, or iii) a different famous face. Participants performed a face familiarity task on the targets. In addition to response times and accuracies, ERPs for target faces were analyzed. First, in line with previous studies, repetition priming effects occurred when famous faces were preceded by different images of the same faces (RT, ACC, P200, N250r, N400). Second, attenuated repetition priming effects were found when famous target faces were preceded by faces of unfamiliar lookalikes (RT, ACC, N250r, N400). Third, repetition priming effects in the N250r and N400 for lookalike primes were more reliable for participants with high face recognition skills. This suggests that i) mental representations in good recognizers are characterized by a larger flexibility, and ii) that high and low performers also differ at the level of post perceptual access to semantic information about familiar persons. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.

Journal of Vision, Aug 10, 2012

Perception, May 1, 2005

We investigated the influence of task-irrelevant speaker variations on speechreading performance.... more We investigated the influence of task-irrelevant speaker variations on speechreading performance. In three experiments with video digitised faces presented either in dynamic, static-sequential, or static mode, participants performed speeded classifications on vowel utterances (German vowels /u/ and /i/). A Garner interference paradigm was used, in which speaker identity was task-irrelevant but could be either correlated, constant, or orthogonal to the vowel uttered. Reaction times for facial speech classifications were slowed by task-irrelevant speaker variations for dynamic stimuli. The results are discussed with reference to distributed models of face perception (Haxby et al, 2000 Trends in Cognitive Sciences4 223–233) and the relevance of both dynamic information and speaker characteristics for speechreading.

Cerebral Cortex, Nov 21, 2012

Participants are more accurate at remembering faces of their own relative to another ethnic group... more Participants are more accurate at remembering faces of their own relative to another ethnic group (own-race bias, ORB). This phenomenon has been explained by reduced perceptual expertise, or alternatively, by the categorization of other-race faces into social outgroups and reduced effort to individuate such faces. We examined event-related potential (ERP) correlates of the ORB, testing recognition memory for Asian and Caucasian faces in Caucasian and Asian participants. Both groups demonstrated a significant ORB in recognition memory. ERPs revealed more negative N170 amplitudes for other-race faces in both groups, probably reflecting more effortful structural encoding. Importantly, the ethnicity effect in left-hemispheric N170 during learning correlated significantly with the behavioral ORB. Similarly, in the subsequent N250, both groups demonstrated more negative amplitudes for other-race faces, and during test phases, this effect correlated significantly with the ORB. We suggest that ethnicity effects in the N170 reflect an early categorization of other-race faces into a social out-group, resulting in less efficient encoding and thus decreased memory. Moreover, ethnicity effects in the N250 may represent the "tagging" of other-race faces as perceptually salient, which hampers the recognition of these faces.

Experimental Brain Research, Aug 25, 2021

Modifying established motor skills is a challenging endeavor due to proactive interference from u... more Modifying established motor skills is a challenging endeavor due to proactive interference from undesired old to desired new actions, calling for high levels of cognitive control. Motor restrictions may facilitate the modification of motor skills by rendering undesired responses physically impossible, thus reducing demands to response inhibition. Here we studied behavioral and EEG effects of rule changes to typing in skilled touch-typists. The respective rule change-typing without using the left index finger-was either implemented per instruction only or with an additional motor restriction. In both groups, the rule change elicited delays and more errors in typing, indicating the occurrence of proactive interference. While stimulus-locked ERPs did not exhibit prominent effects of rule change or group, response-locked ERPs revealed that the time courses of preparatory brain activity preceding typing responses depended on the presence of motor restriction. Although further research is necessary to corroborate our findings, they indicate a novel brain correlate that represents changes in inhibitory response preparation induced by short-term motor restrictions.

Biological Psychology, Jul 1, 2021

Changing pre-existing, automatized motor skills often requires interference control. Prepotent re... more Changing pre-existing, automatized motor skills often requires interference control. Prepotent response inhibition - one subdimension of inhibition - has been theorized to be particularly associated with successful interference control in motor skills. Recent evidence suggests that different inhibition subdimensions elicit distinct ERP patterns (with larger P3 components for response inhibition). Therefore, we examined whether a similar ERP pattern would arise in a task demanding participants to overcome interference emerging from strong motor automatisms. This was realized within a typing paradigm involving a letter switch manipulation which is able to produce strong, immediate interference effects. Most importantly, stimulus-locked ERP analyses revealed an enhanced P3 component at frontal, central and most pronouncedly parietal sites for interference trials, in line with previous reported patterns for response inhibition. Together, different analyses provide first insights into the electrophysiological correlates of motor skill change, corroborating the pivotal role of response inhibition for successful interference control.

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, Oct 7, 2016

Recent findings show benefits for learning and subsequent recognition of faces caricatured in sha... more Recent findings show benefits for learning and subsequent recognition of faces caricatured in shape or texture, but there is little evidence on whether this caricature learning advantage generalizes to recognition of veridical counterparts at test. Moreover, it has been reported that there is a relatively higher contribution of texture information, at the expense of shape information, for familiar compared to unfamiliar face recognition. The aim of this study was to examine whether veridical faces are recognized better when they were learned as caricatures compared to when they were learned as veridicals-what we call a caricature generalization benefit. Photorealistic facial stimuli derived from a 3-D camera system were caricatured selectively in either shape or texture by 50 %. Faces were learned across different images either as veridicals, shape caricatures, or texture caricatures. At test, all learned and novel faces were presented as previously unseen frontal veridicals, and participants performed an old-new task. We assessed accuracies, reaction times, and face-sensitive eventrelated potentials (ERPs). Faces learned as caricatures were recognized more accurately than faces learned as veridicals. At learning, N250 and LPC were largest for shape caricatures, suggesting encoding advantages of distinctive facial shape. At test, LPC was largest for faces that had been learned as texture caricatures, indicating the importance of texture for familiar face recognition. Overall, our findings demonstrate that caricature learning advantages can generalize to and, importantly, improve recognition of veridical versions of faces.

Brain Research, Oct 1, 2006

We assessed hemispheric differences in font-specific and abstractive repetition priming for famou... more We assessed hemispheric differences in font-specific and abstractive repetition priming for famous persons' names. Participants performed speeded familiarity judgments for foveally presented famous and unfamiliar names. Famous target names were preceded by primes (150 ms) in the left or right visual field (LVF or RVF). Primes were either the same name as the target written in the same font (font-specific priming), the same name in a different font (abstractive priming), or a different name (unprimed condition). In reaction times, LH superiority was strong for abstractive priming across fonts, but was reduced to insignificance for font-specific priming. We observed 3 different ERP modulations of priming for target names: a small font-specific posterior N200 (160-220 ms), a left temporal N250r (220-300 ms), and an N400 modulation (300-500 ms). The left temporal N250r exhibited large and abstractive priming for RVF primes, but smaller and font-specific priming for LVF primes. N400 effects were observed in all priming conditions. With respect to previous findings that N200, N250r, and N400 reflect facilitation at the levels of font-specific encoding, lexical entries for names, and semantic processing, respectively, these findings suggest that the LH superiority for name processing is particularly pronounced for the access to abstractive lexical entries for written names, a process that may be mediated by the left fusiform cortex.

Neuropsychologia, 2002

We investigated repetition priming in the recognition of famous people by recording event-related... more We investigated repetition priming in the recognition of famous people by recording event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and reaction times (RTs). Participants performed speeded two-choice responses depending on whether or not a stimulus showed a famous person. In Experiment 1, a facilitation was found in RTs to famous (but not to unfamiliar) faces when primed by the same face shown in an earlier priming phase of the experiment. In ERPs, an influence of repetition priming was observed neither for the N170 nor for a temporal N250 component which in previous studies had been shown to be sensitive to immediate face repetitions. ERPs to primed unfamiliar faces were more negative over right occipitotemporal areas than those to unprimed faces, but this effect was specific for repetitions of the same image, consistent with recent findings. In contrast, ERPs to primed familiar faces were more positive than those to unprimed faces at parietal sites from 500-600 ms after face onset, and these priming effects were comparable regardless of whether the same or a different image of the celebrity had served as prime. In Experiment 2, similar results were found for name recognition-a facilitation in RTs to primed familiar but not unfamiliar names, and a parietal positivity to primed names around 500-600 ms. ERP repetition effects showed comparable topographies for faces and names, consistent with the idea of a common underlying source. With reference to current models of face recognition, we suggest that these ERP repetition effects for familiar stimuli reflect a change in post-perceptual representations for people, rather than a neural correlate of recognition at a perceptual level.

Valentine’s influential norm-based multidimensional face-space model (nMDFS) predicts that percei... more Valentine’s influential norm-based multidimensional face-space model (nMDFS) predicts that perceived distinctiveness increases with distance to the norm. Occipito-temporal event-related potentials (ERPs) have been recently shown to respond selectively to variations in distance-to-norm (P200) or familiarity (N250, late negativity), respectively (Wuttke & Schweinberger, 2019). Despite growing evidence on interindividual differences in face perception skills at the behavioral level, little research has focused on their electrophysiological correlates. To reveal potential interindividual differences in face spaces, we contrasted high and low performers in face recognition in regards to distance-to-norm (P200) and familiarity (N250). We replicated both the P200 distance-to-norm and the N250 familiarity effect. Importantly, we observed: i) reduced responses in low compared to high performers of face recognition, especially in terms of smaller distance-to-norm effects in the P200, possibly...