Naming faces and naming names: exploring an interactive activation model of person recognition.
In this paper we present an interactive activation and competition (IAC) model of name recognition. This is an extension of a previous account of name retrieval (Burton & Bruce, 1992) and is based on a functional model due to Valentine, Bredart, Lawson, and Ward (1991). Several empirical effects of name recognition are simulated: (1) names that are known are read faster than names that are unknown; (2) common names are read faster than rare names; and (3) rare names are recognised as familiar faster than common names. The simulations demonstrate that these complex effects can arise as a natural consequence of the architecture of the IAC model. Finally, we explore a modification of the Valentine et al. functional model, and conclude that the model as originally proposed is best able to account for the available data.
Burton
A M
AM
Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland.
Bruce
V
V
D001244:Association; D005145:Face; D006801:Humans; D008606:Mental Processes; D011939:Mental Recall; D009275:Names; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012660:Semantics