Authors
Douglas Martin 1  , Susan A. Cairns 2, Elizabeth Orme 1, Lisa M. DeBruine 2, Benedict C. Jones 2, C. Neil Macrae 2
1Northumbria University, UK 2University of Aberdeen, UK
Abstract
It has frequently been demonstrated that repeated presentation of a stimulus can
result in facilitated processing of the item, an effect termed repetition
priming. Questions remain, however, regarding the boundary conditions of this
effect, particularly for faces. For example, is repetition priming for
unfamiliar faces dependent on the presentation of identical stimuli at study and
test? This question was explored in three experiments in which the
pose (i.e., frontal vs. ¾) and perceptual distance from the original
facial identity (i.e., 100%, 75%, 50%, or
25% of original person) were manipulated between the testing phases
of a standard repetition-priming paradigm. The results revealed that priming did
not persist following any change to a face between study and test, thereby
suggesting that repetition priming for unfamiliar faces is form specific. The
theoretical implications of this finding are considered.
Keywords
social cognition, face processing, implicit memory, repetition priming, person perception
Show References
|