Profile
FaceMindLab is the scientific project site of Dipl.-Biol. Bastian J. Hirthammer. The research profile connects biological anthropology, morphological image analysis, and perception psychology.
The methodological starting point lies in 3D acquisition and quantification of human facial features and in long-standing work with morphological person comparisons. This leads to psychological questions about how visible features are assessed, how strongly observers agree, and which limits arise from image conditions and observer variability.
Scientific approach
Faces are often judged quickly and seemingly directly. Judgements about age, similarity, or correspondence between person images can instead be studied as multistage processes of perception and decision-making. Which features are associated with these judgements, and which decision criteria operate in categorical tasks, are empirical questions.
Judgements can vary to different degrees across observers and conditions. Controlled variation and repeated measurement can be used to examine how view, image quality, task, and observer differences contribute to this variability.
Fields of work
The fields of work include visible ageing cues, 3D acquisition of head and face, image quality, and image-based assessment of similarity and difference. The work examines how observers assess visible structures and use them in different tasks.
This leads to questions in visual cognition: what supports a judgement, what remains ambiguous, and when is restraint appropriate?