Does My Face FIT?: A Face Image Task Reveals Structure and Distortions of Facial Feature Representation

Despite extensive research on face perception, few studies have investigated individuals’ knowledge about the physical features of their own face. In this study, 50 participants indicated the location of key features of their own face, relative to an anchor point corresponding to the tip of the nose, and the results were compared to the true location of the same individual’s features from a standardised photograph. Horizontal and vertical errors were analysed separately. An overall bias to underestimate vertical distances revealed a distorted face representation, with reduced face height. Factor analyses were used to identify separable subconfigurations of facial features with correlated localisation errors. Independent representations of upper and lower facial features emerged from the data pattern. The major source of variation across individuals was in representation of face shape, with a spectrum from tall/thin to short/wide representation. Visual identification of one’s own face is excellent, and facial features are routinely used for establishing personal identity. However, our results show that spatial knowledge of one’s own face is remarkably poor, suggesting that face representation may not contribute strongly to self-awareness.

尽管已有大量关于人脸感知(face perception)的研究，但极少有工作考察个体对自身面部物理特征的认知情况。本研究招募50名被试，让他们以鼻尖对应的锚点(anchor point)为参照，标注自身面部关键特征的位置，并将结果与标准化照片中该个体面部特征的真实位置进行比对。研究分别对水平误差与垂直误差进行了分析。整体而言，被试存在低估垂直距离的偏差，反映出扭曲的面部表征(face representation)，表现为面部高度被低估。研究采用因子分析，识别出定位误差相关的可分离面部特征子构型。数据模式显示，面部上半区域与下半区域的特征拥有独立的面部表征。个体间差异的主要来源为面部形状表征，呈现出从高瘦型到短宽型的连续谱系。人们对自身面部的视觉识别能力极佳，面部特征也常被用于确立个人身份。然而本研究结果表明，个体对自身面部的空间认知能力极差，这提示面部表征可能并未在自我意识构建中发挥显著作用。