A ilusão da máscara côncava e o processamento coarse-to-fine

Abstract

The hollow face illusion occurs when the concave side of a mask is observed at a certain distance and perceives it as convex, that is, a visual depth inversion occurs. This visual illusion is useful to understand how the face recognition process takes place, as well as help in understanding some clinical conditions, such as schizophrenia and alcohol withdrawal syndrome. In this study, the objective was to verify the effect of exposure time on the mask and its presentation (complete or partial) on the magnitude of the illusion. Thirty-two volunteers (24 women, mean age 22.5 years) performed judgments on the depth of the mask (concave or convex) in two experimental sessions (partial and complete mask) with restricted times (150ms or 300ms). The results indicated that the illusion occurred, however the magnitude of the illusion was not influenced by the exposure time or by the type of mask presented. The data provides favorable evidence for the coarse-to-fine hypothesis, in other words, the overall processing precedes the evaluation of details in the recognition of a human face.