Face perception:
Category: Research
We've discussed synesthesia many times before on Cognitive Daily -- it's the seemingly bizarre phenomenon when one stimulus (e.g. a sight or a sound) is experienced in multiple modalities (e.g. taste, vision, or colors). For example, a person might experience...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 12:05 PM • 13 Comments •
Category: Research
The TV show Lie To Me focuses on the exploits of an expert in lie-detection as he solves perplexing crimes in his high-tech Washington laboratory. It's actually fun to watch, especially since it appears to make some effort to get...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 4:15 PM • 12 Comments •
Category: Research
Nalini Ambady has become famous for her research on "thin slicing," the idea that ordinary people can make accurate judgments about others amazingly quickly. We've discussed work from her lab showing that people can accurately predict teaching ability by watching...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 2:17 PM • 27 Comments •
Category: Research
How does our visual system decide if something is a face? Some automated face-detecting software uses color as one cue that something is a face. For example Apple's iPhoto has no trouble determining that there are two faces in this...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:43 PM • 6 Comments •
Category: Research
One of my favorite cartoons as a child was "Speed Racer." It featured an all-American boy (first name, "Speed," last name, "Racer") engaging in that most American of pastimes: driving fast cars. Except that "Speed Racer" wasn't really American; it...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 2:34 PM • 41 Comments •
Category: Research
Take a look at this face: Does it look more angry or fearful? It may be rather difficult to tell: About fifty percent of adults say faces like this are angry and fifty percent say it's fearful. However, for children,...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:53 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Research
We've discussed attentional blink several times on CogDaily. It's a fascinating phenomenon: if you see a series of images flashing by rapidly, you can normally pick out one of the images (for example, a banana in series of pictures of...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 10:50 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Research
Take a look at these photos of Jim and Nora: They've clearly been distorted (using the "spherize" filter in Photoshop), but in opposite directions. Jim's been "expanded" to make more spherical, while Nora has been "contracted" to look more concave....
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Posted by Dave Munger at 4:36 PM • 15 Comments •
Category: Research
The hollow-face illusion is one of the most dramatic and robust illusions I've ever come across. It's been known for well over 200 years, but it never ceases to amaze me, as this video demonstrates: A three-dimensional hollow face mask...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 3:15 PM • 13 Comments •
Category: Research
Joe and Michelle are having dinner at a romantic restaurant. It's their first anniversary, and everything is perfect -- until an attractive woman walks past the table. Michelle notices that Joe casts a quick glance at the woman. Michelle flashes...
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Posted by Dave Munger at 2:20 PM • 35 Comments •