TY - CONF

T1 - Representation of Sex from the Face and Body: Evidence from a Visual Adaptation Task

AU - Mitev, Deyan

AU - Koldewyn, Kami

AU - Downing, Paul

PY - 2024/8

Y1 - 2024/8

N2 - Observers readily make judgments of sex from the appearance of others' faces and bodies. Researchers have used visual adaptation techniques with such social stimuli to demonstrate high level after-effects such that ambiguous bodies or faces appear more male or female following adaptation to a female or male adaptor. Such findings have typically been interpreted in terms of a symmetrical mental 'space'. However, previous evidence from visual search tasks suggests that ‘female’, in both body shape and in face appearance, is coded as an extension of a ‘male’ default. That is, there is an asymmetry in the representation of ‘male’ and ‘female’ in the perceptual system. This hypothetical polarised representation of sex predicts asymmetric effects of adaptation in adaptation paradigms. However, to our knowledge, there are no attempts in the literature to directly compare the strength of the perceptual aftereffect of adaptation for ‘male’ versus ‘female’ faces and bodies. To this end, we utilised a visual adaptation paradigm, where participants were exposed to computer-generated strongly female, strongly male, or perceptually ambiguous faces and body silhouettes (adaptors) and were then asked to categorise subsequent slightly male, slightly female, or perceptually ambiguous faces or body silhouettes. The results showed a strong aftereffect of adaptation, such that after prolonged exposure to strongly ‘male’ stimuli, participants categorized the target stimuli as more ‘female’, and vice versa. However, to date, we have not found strong evidence for asymmetric representation of ‘male’ compared to ‘female’, contrary to our original hypothesis. Evidence about the organisation of male/female face and body representations does not converge on whether they are symmetrical or asymmetrical.

AB - Observers readily make judgments of sex from the appearance of others' faces and bodies. Researchers have used visual adaptation techniques with such social stimuli to demonstrate high level after-effects such that ambiguous bodies or faces appear more male or female following adaptation to a female or male adaptor. Such findings have typically been interpreted in terms of a symmetrical mental 'space'. However, previous evidence from visual search tasks suggests that ‘female’, in both body shape and in face appearance, is coded as an extension of a ‘male’ default. That is, there is an asymmetry in the representation of ‘male’ and ‘female’ in the perceptual system. This hypothetical polarised representation of sex predicts asymmetric effects of adaptation in adaptation paradigms. However, to our knowledge, there are no attempts in the literature to directly compare the strength of the perceptual aftereffect of adaptation for ‘male’ versus ‘female’ faces and bodies. To this end, we utilised a visual adaptation paradigm, where participants were exposed to computer-generated strongly female, strongly male, or perceptually ambiguous faces and body silhouettes (adaptors) and were then asked to categorise subsequent slightly male, slightly female, or perceptually ambiguous faces or body silhouettes. The results showed a strong aftereffect of adaptation, such that after prolonged exposure to strongly ‘male’ stimuli, participants categorized the target stimuli as more ‘female’, and vice versa. However, to date, we have not found strong evidence for asymmetric representation of ‘male’ compared to ‘female’, contrary to our original hypothesis. Evidence about the organisation of male/female face and body representations does not converge on whether they are symmetrical or asymmetrical.

M3 - Poster

T2 - European Conference on Visual Perception, 2024

Y2 - 25 August 2024 through 29 August 2024

ER -