CCN Seminar with Prof. Angela Yu

America/New_York
Description

Speaker: Angela Yu,   Associate Professor of Cognitive Science, UC San Diego

Title: Computational Modeling of Human Face Perception

Description: Face processing plays a central role in everyday human social life. Here, we investigate the nature of face representation and processing in the brain, by leveraging computer vision algorithms such as the Active Appearance Model, which has recently been shown to have latent features encoded by face patch cells in the macaque monkey. We show that human social trait perception has both a linear component and a quadratic component, with the latter specifically related to the statistical typicality of a face. We relate this typicality element to the coding cost of neural representation, and its implications for learning and exploration. In the cognitive domain, we examine how attentional modulation affects face representation and perception. In the psychiatric domain, we examine how depression and anxiety in an individual interact with face perception and face-based decision making. In the social domain, we examine how facial processing affects social decision making and contribute to gender and racial biases. Finally, I will present some preliminary results from a theoretical analysis of how overparameterized systems can outperform underparameterized ones in predicting human social perception of faces. 
 

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