The effect of real-world personal familiarity on the speed of face information processing.
BACKGROUND
Previous studies have explored the effects of familiarity on various kinds of visual face judgments, yet the role of familiarity in face processing is not fully understood. Across different face judgments and stimulus sets, the data is equivocal as to whether or not familiarity impacts recognition processes.


RESULTS
Here, we examine the effect of real-world personal familiarity in three simple delayed-match-to-sample tasks in which subjects were required to match faces on the basis of orientation (upright v. inverted), gender and identity. We find that subjects had a significant speed advantage with familiar faces in all three tasks, with large effects for the gender and identity matching tasks.


CONCLUSIONS
Our data indicates that real-world experience with a face exerts a powerful influence on face processing in tasks where identity information is irrelevant, even in tasks that could in principle be solved via low-level cues. These results underscore the importance of experience in shaping visual recognition processes.
Balas
Benjamin
B
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America. bjbalas@gmail.com
Cox
David
D
Conwell
Erin
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D011939:Mental Recall; D010775:Photic Stimulation