Mechanisms of identity and gender decisions to faces: Who rocked in 1986?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Mechanisms of identity and gender decisions to faces: Who rocked in 1986?

AU - Richards, Rachel M.

AU - Ellis, Andrew W.

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - Two experiments Lire reported in which participants made familiarity decisions (Is this face familiar or not?) or gender decisions (is this face male or female?) to the same sets of faces presented as whole faces or as internal features only The experimental items on which the analysis was performed were famous and unfamiliar male faces that differed on rated masculinity The famous faces also differed on age of acquisition (AoA). The experimental male faces Were combined with an equal number of famous and unfamiliar female faces for presentation to participants. In experiment I We found faster and more accurate familiarity decisions to whole male faces than to internal features: also an interaction between AoA and masculinity such that Familiarity decisions were both faster and more accurate to high- than to low-masculinity faces when those faces were late-acquired, but not when they were early-acquired. In experiment 2 we found the same benefit for whole faces over internal features and the same interaction between AoA and masculinity in gender decisions. The similarity between the effects of AoA and masculinity in Familiarity and gender decisions is more readily accounted for by models of face processing which posit a close relationship between gender and identity processing than by models which maintain that those aspects of face perception are dealt with by quite separate processing streams. We propose that gender decisions, like familiarity decisions, are semantic judgments (rather than judgments based on the analysis of the Surface features Of faces). and that the shared basis of the two forms of decision explains why they show similar influences of AoA and masculinity.

AB - Two experiments Lire reported in which participants made familiarity decisions (Is this face familiar or not?) or gender decisions (is this face male or female?) to the same sets of faces presented as whole faces or as internal features only The experimental items on which the analysis was performed were famous and unfamiliar male faces that differed on rated masculinity The famous faces also differed on age of acquisition (AoA). The experimental male faces Were combined with an equal number of famous and unfamiliar female faces for presentation to participants. In experiment I We found faster and more accurate familiarity decisions to whole male faces than to internal features: also an interaction between AoA and masculinity such that Familiarity decisions were both faster and more accurate to high- than to low-masculinity faces when those faces were late-acquired, but not when they were early-acquired. In experiment 2 we found the same benefit for whole faces over internal features and the same interaction between AoA and masculinity in gender decisions. The similarity between the effects of AoA and masculinity in Familiarity and gender decisions is more readily accounted for by models of face processing which posit a close relationship between gender and identity processing than by models which maintain that those aspects of face perception are dealt with by quite separate processing streams. We propose that gender decisions, like familiarity decisions, are semantic judgments (rather than judgments based on the analysis of the Surface features Of faces). and that the shared basis of the two forms of decision explains why they show similar influences of AoA and masculinity.

KW - CUMULATIVE-FREQUENCY HYPOTHESIS

KW - LEXICAL-DECISION

KW - UNFAMILIAR FACES

KW - PROCESSING TASKS

KW - NEURAL SYSTEMS

KW - FAMILIAR FACES

KW - FAMOUS FACES

KW - REAL AGE

KW - ACQUISITION

KW - RECOGNITION

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=56849126025&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1068/p6023

DO - 10.1068/p6023

M3 - Article

VL - 37

SP - 1700

EP - 1719

JO - Perception

JF - Perception

SN - 0301-0066

IS - 11

ER -