Call for papers: Vision Research Special Issue
Vision Research SI: Face perception: Experience, models and neural mechanisms
Editors: Ipek Oruc, Benjamin Balas, Michael S. Landy
Scope:
Faces are ecologically significant stimuli central to social interaction and
communication. Human observers possess a remarkable ability to recall great numbers of
unique facial identities encountered in a lifetime. Observers can individuate faces
seemingly effortlessly based on minor differences across exemplars, yet remain robust
against tremendous variation across different images of the same identity. For these and
other reasons face recognition is considered to be a form of specialized perceptual
expertise. The last few decades have seen a flurry of research activity delineating the
limits to this expertise. For example, face expertise fails to generalize to faces of
unfamiliar races (“the other-race effect”) and to faces viewed in the inverted orientation
(“the face inversion effect”). Despite this tremendous progress identifying the limits of
specialized face perception, there is little consensus over the origins of this
specialization and the forces that shape this extraordinary skill. Some researchers
emphasize genetic and innate contributions. Others stress the key role played by
experience during sensitive periods of early development. Yet others argue that face
expertise is a dynamic ability continually reshaped by experience well into adulthood.
The primary goal of this special issue is to bring together current research on this
topic. Questions we would like to address include but are not limited to: What are the
main contributors to face expertise: experiencing a large number of individual exemplars
even if only during brief encounters (e.g., unfamiliar faces in a bus) or prolonged
experience with a small number of faces (e.g., family interactions)? Can the other-race
effect be eliminated (or even reversed)? If so, is this possible during adulthood or
limited to early development? How does experience alter perceptual representations of
faces and neural mechanisms underlying face recognition? We seek research papers that
address the emergence and maintenance of face expertise that span the entire life cycle
from development to adulthood as well as aging. Behavioural, neuroimaging, naturalistic
observation and modelling approaches are all welcome.
Deadline for submission is September 15, 2017.
Prospective authors are encouraged to contact one of the editors
(ipor@mail.ubc.ca<mailto:ipor@mail.ubc.ca>,
bjbalas@gmail.com<mailto:bjbalas@gmail.com>,
landy@nyu.edu<mailto:landy@nyu.edu>) with a tentative title prior to submission.
For further information and author instructions:
https://www.journals.elsevier.com/vision-research/call-for-papers/face-perc…
_______________________________________________
Ipek Oruc
Assistant Professor
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
University of British Columbia
Rm 4440 - 818 West 10th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M9
email: ipor@mail.ubc.ca<mailto:ipor@mail.ubc.ca>
URL:
http://www.visualcognition.ca/ipek/