A new paper by Michael Makoto Martinsen and Kairi Yoshino has been published in the Journal of Vision. Lab-members Dr. Yuya Kinzuka, Dr. Fumiaki Sato, Asst. Prof. Hideki Tamura, Prof. Tetsuto Minami, and Prof. Shigeki Nakauchi also contributed to this paper. The publication, titled “Facial ambiguity and perception: How face-likeness affects breaking time in continuous flash suppression”, explores the mechanisms of facial recognition and how ambiguous face-like stimuli are processed under unconscious conditions using continuous flash suppression (CFS).

The key finding was that binary faces (similar to Mooney Faces), especially those with higher face-likeness, resulted in shorter breaking time, even when presented unconsciously. This suggests that even minimal facial cues can significantly influence how quickly ambiguous stimuli are brought to awareness.

Martinsen, M. M., Yoshino, K., Kinzuka, Y., Sato, F., Tamura, H., Minami, T., & Nakauchi, S. (2024). Facial ambiguity and perception: How face-likeness affects breaking time in continuous flash suppression. Journal of Vision, 24(9):18, 1–14,
https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.24.9.18