Individual Differences in Person Perception and Interaction

To date, cognitive and neuronal correlates of person perception and human interaction are surprisingly poorly understood. One example is face recognition and face learning skills: Individual differences in these skills has only recently become a focus of  research. In this project, we (1) study face learning in people with good and poor face recognition skills, and specifically address the question whether poor performers might benefit disproportionately from an enhancement of a face ́s idiosyncratic shape or texture (by means of selective spatial caricaturing). We also (2) study neural correlates of individual differences in face recognition skills. In specific experiments, we (3) investigate individual differences in processing the second-order spatial configuration of facial features, by using a metric manipulation of feature placement.  In broader studies with larger groups of participants, we (4) assess relationsips between face and voice perception skills and more general  skills relevant to social cognition and interaction (such as perspective-taking or theory of mind), as well as with personality characteristics (such as the BIG FIVE, or autistic traits)