Spatial-Frequency Thresholds for Configural and Featural Discriminations in Upright and Inverted Faces

Face recognition is thought to rely more on the relative positions of face features (configural information) than on the appearance of the individual face parts (featural information). It also seems to rely on a specific band of spatial frequencies (SFs). In this study, we measured the SFs needed for processing configural and featural information using the method of constant stimuli in combination with a simultaneous-matching paradigm. Stimuli were two-octave-wide bandpass-filtered upright and inverted faces that contained either featural or configural modifications. SF thresholds for featural and configural processing were calculated by interpolating between discrimination accuracy scores. Low-pass and high-pass thresholds for featural and configural processing in upright faces were approximately equal, whereas for inverted faces, the thresholds were closer to the middle of the spectrum for configural processing relative to featural processing. Thus, a broader band of SFs, one that overlapped more with the middle of the frequency spectrum, was needed for configural processing than for featural processing in inverted faces. Our findings emphasise the importance of a narrow mid-range band of frequencies for both configural and featural encoding in upright faces and suggest that configural information is extracted less effectively in inverted faces.