This study addresses the relationship between item response time and item accuracy (i.e., the response time accuracy correlation, RTAC) in figural matrices tests. The dual processing account of response time effects predicts negative RTACs in tasks that allow for relatively automatic processing and positive RTACs in tasks that require controlled processing. Contrary to these predictions, severa...

In two experiments we determined the electrophysiological substrates of figural aftereffects in face adaptation using compressed and expanded faces. In Experiment 1, subjects viewed a series of compressed and expanded faces. Results demonstrated that distortion systematically modulated the peak amplitude of the P250 event-related potential (ERP) component. As the amount of perceived distortion ...

Face aftereffects can provide information on how faces are stored by the human visual system (eg Leopold et al, 2001 Nature Neuroscience 4 89-94), but few studies have used robustly represented (highly familiar) faces. In this study we investigated the influence of facial familiarity on adaptation effects. Participants were adapted to a series of distorted faces (their own face, a famous face, ...

The norm-based coding model of face perception posits that face perception involves an implicit comparison of observed faces to a representation of an average face (prototype) that is shaped by experience. Using some methods, observers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have shown atypical face perception, but other methods suggest preserved face perception. Here, we used a figural aftereffect...

Article history: Received 6 May 2009 Received in revised form 11 August 2009 Accepted 17 August 2009 Available online 9 September 2009 Recently, different methodological approaches have been discussed as an explanation for inconsistencies in studies investigating sex differences in different intelligences. The present study investigates sex differences in manifest sum scores, factor score estim...

Research has indicated that the Ruff Figural Fluency Test [RFFT; Ruff, R. M., Light, R. H., & Evans, R. W. (1987). The Ruff Figural Fluency Test: A normative study with adults. Developmental Neuropsychology, 3, 37-51] is sensitive to right frontal lobe functioning. Indeed, research has differentiated between patients with left or right frontal lobe lesions using performance on the RFFT [Ruff, R...

Edge-assignment determines the perception of relative depth across an edge and the shape of the closer side. Many cues determine edge-assignment, but relatively little is known about the neural mechanisms involved in combining these cues. Here, we manipulated extremal edge and attention cues to bias edge-assignment such that these two cues either cooperated or competed. To index their neural re...

We examined figural aftereffects in images of human faces, for which changes in configuration are highly discriminable. Observers either matched or rated faces before or after viewing distorted images of faces. Prior adaptation strongly biases face perception by causing the original face to appear distorted in a direction opposite to the adapting distortion. Aftereffects transferred across diff...

People with congenital prosopagnosia (CP) report difficulty recognising faces in everyday life and perform poorly on face recognition tests. Here, we investigate whether impaired adaptive face space coding might contribute to poor face recognition in CP. To pinpoint how adaptation may affect face processing, a group of CPs and matched controls completed two complementary face adaptation tasks: ...