An online version of the Mooney Face Test: phenotypic and genetic associations

• Published in: Neuropsychologia Vol. 63; pp. 19 - 25
• Main Authors: Verhallen, Roeland J., Bosten, Jenny M., Goodbourn, Patrick T., Bargary, Gary, Lawrance-Owen, Adam J., Mollon, J.D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Choice Behavior; Closure; Data Collection - methods; Face; Face perception; Female; Fingers - anatomy & histology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genome-wide association study (GWAS); Gestalt perception; Humans; Individual differences; Internet; Male; Mooney Face Test; Perception; Perceptual Closure - physiology; Phenotype; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; RAPGEF5; ras Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors - genetics; rs1522280; Sex Factors; Vision; Young Adult; Genome-wide association study (GWAS); Face perception; Closure; Mooney Face Test; Gestalt perception; Individual differences; RAPGEF5; rs1522280; Human; Sex; Cognition; Genetic determinism; Phenotype; Gene; Vision; Interindividual comparison; Genetics; Perception; Gestalt theory; Face
• ISSN: 0028-3932; 1873-3514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.08.011

The Mooney Face Test is a widely used test of face perception, but was originally designed to be administered by personal interview. We have developed a three-alternative forced-choice version for online testing. We tested 397 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 42 (M=24 years). There was a wide range of performance (64–100% correct; M=89.6%). We observed a significant sex difference favoring males (.31 standard deviation; p =.004). In addition, independently of sex, higher 2D:4D digit ratios were significantly associated with higher scores (ρ=.14, p=.006). A genome-wide association study (GWAS) for a subset of 370 participants identified an association between Mooney performance and a polymorphism in the RAPGEF5 gene (rs1522280; p=9.68×10−8). This association survives a permutation test (p=.031).
•An online 3-alternative forced-choice version of the Mooney test has been developed.•397 participants show a wide range of performance.•Males outperform females.•A positive, significant correlation of performance with digit ratio was observed.•GWAS tentatively identifies rs1522280 in RAPGEF5 to be associated with performance.