Earlier work on self-face processing has reported a bias in the processing of self-face result in faster response to self-face in comparison to other familiar and unfamiliar faces (termed as self-face advantage or SFA). Even though most studies agree that the SFA occurs due to an attentional bias, there is little agreement regarding the stage at which it occurs. While a large number of studies show self-face influencing processing later at disengagement stage, early event-related potential components show differential activity for the self-face suggesting that SFA occurs early. We address this contradiction using a cueless temporal order judgment task that allows us to investigate early perceptual processing, while bias due to top-down expectation is controlled. A greater shift in point of subjective simultaneity for self-face would indicate a greater processing advantage at early perceptual stage. With help of two experiments, we show an early perceptual advantage for self-face, compared to both a friend’s face and an unfamiliar face (Experiment 1). This advantage is present even when the effect of criterion shift is minimized (Experiment 2). Interestingly, the magnitude of advantage is similar for self-friend and self-unfamiliar pair. The evidence from the two experiments suggests early capture of attention as a likely reason for the SFA, which is present for the self-face but not for other familiar faces.

早期关于自我面部处理的研究报告了自我面部处理中的偏差，导致与其他熟悉和不熟悉的面部相比，对自我面部的反应更快（称为自我面部优势或 SFA）。尽管大多数研究都认为 SFA 的发生是由于注意力偏差，但对于它发生的阶段却没有达成一致。虽然大量研究表明，自我面部影响处理在脱离阶段较晚，但早期事件相关电位成分显示出自我面部的不同活动，表明 SFA 发生较早。我们使用无线索的时间顺序判断任务来解决这一矛盾，该任务使我们能够研究早期的感知处理，同时控制由于自上而下的期望而产生的偏差。自我面孔的主观同时性点的更大转变将表明在早期知觉阶段具有更大的处理优势。在两个实验的帮助下，我们展示了与朋友的面孔和陌生的面孔相比，自我面孔的早期感知优势（实验1）。即使标准偏移的影响最小化（实验 2），这一优点仍然存在。有趣的是，对于自友和不熟悉的人来说，优势的大小是相似的。这两个实验的证据表明，早期吸引注意力可能是 SFA 的原因，SFA 存在于自己的面孔中，但不存在于其他熟悉的面孔中。