ABSTRACT

Whether colour information contributes to the process of face recognition remains controversial. We examine this question here by evaluating the face recognition performance of individuals who are colour blind. Specifically, we compared the performance profile of colour blind and matched control individuals on a colour face recognition task where shape information was progressively degraded. The colour blind participants performed significantly more poorly than controls on this task, as revealed through multiple dependent measures. There was, however, no difference between these two groups on a standardized grayscale control task of face recognition, ruling out a generic face recognition deficit. These results both uncover a face recognition deficit in colour blind individuals and provide evidence for the contribution of colour to everyday facial recognition.

摘要

颜色信息是否有助于面部识别过程仍存在争议。我们在这里通过评估色盲个体的面部识别性能来研究这个问题。具体来说，我们比较了形状信息逐渐退化的彩色面孔识别任务中色盲和相匹配的对照个体的表现。色盲参与者在这项任务上的表现明显比对照组差，这是通过多项相关措施得出的。但是，这两组在标准化的面部识别灰度控制任务上没有区别，排除了通用的面部识别缺陷。