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Abstract:
In the real world faces move in a variety of ways, some of which are to do with
their signal-sending functions (smiling, nodding, and speaking) and some with
other functions (looking, chewing). Information provided by dynamic (timevarying)
parameters is known to be particularly salient in the understanding of
speech and interpretation of emotional expressions. Additionally, dynamic
information from the face seems to provide important information when
recognising a person’s identity (Knight & Johnston, 1997; Lander & Bruce, 2000).
Here, we report a number of experiments, using personally familiar faces,
designed to investigate which aspects of motion are beneficial for the recognition
of identity—rigid head movements? expression type movements? speech
movements? Recent work has suggested that the eyes are particularly important
for face processing. However, in terms of motion, it is the mouth area that moves
the most. Our results suggest that benefits of motion can be found when viewing
just the top or bottom half of the face (rest of face blacked out), indicating that
motion advantages are not confined to one part of the face. Results are discussed
in relation to current models of face recognition. Furthermore, we consider the
possibility that the representations underlying recognition are themselves dynamic in nature (Freyd, 1987).
