PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION AND THE APPLICABILITY OF THE IMPRESSION TRANSFER VECTOR METHOD FOR SYNTHESIZING HIGHER-ORDER FACIAL IMPRESSIONS

We developed a facial image generating technique that can manipulate facial impressions. The present study applied this impression transferring method to higher-order impressions such as "elegance" or "attractiveness" and confirmed the psychological validity of this method using the semantic differential method. Subsequently, we applied this method to two types of cognitive experiments. First, we examined the contributions of texture and shape on the facial impressions by using those face images for which the impressions have already been quantitatively manipulated based on this method. Second, we used such stimuli to examine the effect of facial impressions and attractiveness on the "mere exposure effect." Thus, we concluded that the impression transfer vector method is an effective tool to quantitatively manipulate the facial impressions in various cognitive studies.