Familiarity and face processing
The results of three experiments explore the role of familiarity in face processing. Using the complete-over-part advantage (Experiment 1) and the chimeric faces task (Experiment 2), the results revealed evidence for what may be termed 'holistic processing' of unfamiliar, newly-learned, an...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2013.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get fulltext |
| Summary: | The results of three experiments explore the role of familiarity in face processing. Using the complete-over-part advantage (Experiment 1) and the chimeric faces task (Experiment 2), the results revealed evidence for what may be termed 'holistic processing' of unfamiliar, newly-learned, and famous faces. Notably, the extent of holistic processing on both tasks was not moderated by the familiarity of the stimuli. Experiment 3 replicated this pattern using a simultaneous chimeric task to rule out a simple explanation through memory demands. Taken together, these three experiments provide robust and convergent evidence to suggest that all faces regardless of familiarity can be processed in a holistic fashion. On the basis of these results, discussion is presented regarding the value of considering different 'types' of facial processing over and above a more simple consideration of task difficulty. |
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