ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

Acta Psychologica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (7): 714-728.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00714

• Reports of Empirical Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Average percept in ensemble perception is based on morphed average object: Evidence from average facial attractiveness

TIAN Xinran1, HOU Wenxia1, OU Yuxiao1, YI Bing1, CHEN Wenfeng1(), SHANG Junchen2()   

  1. 1 Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
    2 School of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China
  • Received:2020-06-04 Published:2021-07-25 Online:2021-05-24
  • Contact: CHEN Wenfeng,SHANG Junchen E-mail:wchen@ruc.edu.cn;Junchen_20081@163.com
  • Supported by:
    scientific research foundation of Renmin University of China (special fund for basic scientific research of central universities(18XNLG10);This work was supported by the scientific research foundation of Renmin University of China (special fund for basic scientific research of central universities(19XNLG20);National Natural Science Foundation of China(31400869);Liaoning Social Science Planning Fund(l19BSH005)

Abstract:

Human beings can quickly extract statistical information of a set to form an average representation. The previous study proposed two views on how average representation is formed: to synthesize the set members as a morphed average stimulus, or to calculate the mean of the set members. It is difficult to distinguish these two viewpoints since they predict similar results of the set stimuli in the previous study. However, average representation of facial attractiveness might be appropriate to test these two viewpoints, given that the mean of attractiveness of multiple faces is different from the attractiveness of morphed average face from these faces. The classical mean discrimination task (Experiments 1 and 2) and the attractiveness evaluation task (Experiments 3 and 4) were used to investigate the average representation of facial attractiveness and lend support to the view that the average representation is based on the synthetic average stimulus. Face sets with large and small set size were adopted in four experiments to explore how average representation is formed. The results showed that average stimulus was formed in face sets no matter which set size, and the processing of the average representation may depend on the morphed average stimulus, but not the mean of the set members. In addition, the attractiveness of the face set is greater than the average attractiveness of its members as enhanced by the morphed average stimulus, but this group attractiveness effect is modulated by the set size. This study provides new evidence for the formation mechanism of average representation and the group attractiveness effect.

Key words: average representation, face attractiveness, average face