Document Detail


The entry point of face recognition: evidence for face expertise.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  11561926     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Previous studies have shown that experts (e.g., birdwatchers) are as fast to recognize objects at subordinate levels of abstraction (e.g., robin) as they are to recognize the same object at the basic level (e.g., bird). As a test of face expertise, the current study found that adults identify faces more frequently (Experiment 1) and as quickly (Experiment 2) at the subordinate level (e.g., Bill Clinton) as at the basic level (e.g., human). Whereas brief presentation (75 ms) impaired subordinate-level recognition of nonface objects, it did not impair the subordinate level recognition of faces (Experiment 3). Finally, in an identity-matching task, subordinate-level primes facilitated the matching responses of faces but not nonface objects (Experiment 4). Collectively, these results indicate that face expertise, like expert object expertise, promotes a downward shift in recognition to more subordinate levels of abstraction.
Authors:
J W Tanaka
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of experimental psychology. General     Volume:  130     ISSN:  0096-3445     ISO Abbreviation:  J Exp Psychol Gen     Publication Date:  2001 Sep 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2001-09-19     Completed Date:  2002-02-04     Revised Date:  2006-11-15    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7502587     Medline TA:  J Exp Psychol Gen     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  534-43     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Oberlin College, Ohio 44074, USA. tanaka@cs.oberlin.edu
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Attention
Discrimination Learning*
Face
Female
Humans
Male
Mental Recall*
Pattern Recognition, Visual*
Practice (Psychology)*
Psychophysics
Reaction Time

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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