The Thatcher effect is a perceptual phenomenon in which changes made to a face's features, such as inverting the eyes or mouth, are strikingly obvious when the face is viewed right side up but become very difficult to notice once the same face is turned upside down. Created in 1980 by the psychologist Peter Thompson at the University of York, the effect demonstrates that human face recognition depends on specialized processes tuned to upright faces, including the configural relationships between features, processes that break down once a face is rotated 180 degrees.
Facts
Core ClaimChanges to facial features are difficult to detect when a face is upside-down, though obvious in an upright face. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Sources
1. Thatcher effect, Wikipedia
Lead section
The Thatcher effect, or Thatcher illusion, is a phenomenon in which changes to facial features are difficult to detect when a face is upside-down, even though the same changes are obvious in an upright face.
Creator and timeline
The effect was originally created in 1980 by Peter Thompson, professor of psychology at the University of York.
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
The Thatcher effect is a perceptual phenomenon in which changes made to a face's features, such as inverting the eyes or mouth, are strikingly obvious when the face is viewed right side up but become very difficult to notice once the same face is turned upside down.
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