Upright/Inverted Figures

Facial inversion effect; Inversion effect

The use of upright/inverted figures is a research paradigm in which an image typically expected to be in one orientation (i.e., the “upright” orientation) is shown upside down (i.e., the “inverted” orientation) in order to disrupt typical visual expectations. The discrepancy between performance on a marker task, such as recognition (e.g., “who is shown in this picture?”), in upright and inverted conditions is known as the inversion effect. Since the low-level perceptual differences between an upright and corresponding inverted image are minimal (e.g., both would be equally bright, contain the exact same contrast profiles, the same colors, etc.), the inversion effect is assumed to be associated with removing the upright image from its original context, that is, shattering configural processing or holistic orientation (Rakover and Cahlon 2001). One class of commonly used upright/inverted figures is human faces. When faces are...

Authors and Affiliations

1. School of Medicine, Yale Child Study Center, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

   Frederick Shic

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Frederick Shic .

Editors and Affiliations

1. Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

   Fred R. Volkmar

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