The face inversion effect following pitch and yaw rotations: investigating the boundaries of holistic processing.

Upright faces are thought to be processed holistically. However, the range of views within

which holistic processing occurs is unknown. Recent research by McKone (2008) suggests

that holistic processing occurs for all yaw-rotated face views (i.e., full-face through to profile).

Herewe examined whether holistic processing occurs for pitch, aswell as yaw, rotated

face views. In this face recognition experiment: (i) participants made same/different judgments

about two sequentially presented faces (either both upright or both inverted); (ii) the

test face was pitch/yaw rotated by between 0° and 75° from the encoding face (always a

full-face view). Our logic was as follows: if a particular pitch/yaw-rotated face view is being

processed holistically when upright, then this processing should be disrupted by inversion.

Consistent with previous research, significant face inversion effects (FIEs) were found for

all yaw-rotated views. However, while FIEs were found for pitch rotations up to 45°, none

were observed for 75° pitch rotations (rotated either above or below the full face). We

conclude that holistic processing does not occur for all views of upright faces (e.g., not

for uncommon pitch rotated views), only those that can be matched to a generic global

representation of a face.