Constancy of perception of ecologically valid structures
Based on experimental studies of person identification and perception of induced facial expressions, we analyze the constancy of interpersonal perception - its independence from the experimental conditions. We compare the visual estimates of facial expressions and personality traits of real and virtual posers while systematically varying the configural relations in images of realistic faces and face schemes. We show that regardless of the image type similar configurations elicit similar responses. The estimates of the personality traits depend on the estimates of the congruent expressions. Faces perceived as happy are more often associated with positive personality estimates, while those perceived as sad, with negative estimates. The configural transformations initiate opposite trends depending on the image type: the abstract schemes become more substantially defined, while the perceived photographic portraits lose this quality. We provide rationalization for the nature and the mechanisms of constant and aconstant perception of a person by facial expression. We describe a new type of invariant perception, partial constancy, which is related not only with the poser’s personality, but with the constancy of their facial features. We show the polymorphous nature of this phenomenon, its dynamics and zonal structure.