TY - SER AU - Bowden,Jamie AU - Whitaker, David AU - Dunn, Matt J. TI - The role of Peripheral Vision in the Flashed Face Distortion Effect PY - 2019/// PB - sage KW - peripheral vision KW - flashed face distortion effect N2 - The flashed face distortion effect is a phenomenon whereby images of faces, presented at 4–5 Hz in the visual periphery, appear distorted. It has been hypothesized that the effect is driven by cortical, rather than retinal, components. Here, we investigated the role of peripheral viewing on the effect. Normally sighted participants viewed the stimulus peripherally, centrally, and centrally with a blurring lens (to match visual acuity in the peripheral location). Participants rated the level of distortion using a Visual Analogue Scale. Although optical defocus did have a significant effect on distortion ratings, peripheral viewing had a much greater effect, despite matched visual acuity. We suggest three potential mechanisms for this finding: increased positional uncertainty in the periphery, reduced deployment of attention to the visual periphery, or the visual crowding effect UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/0301006618817419 ER -