The role of distinctiveness in recognition of faces as they become familiar
Citation
(2016) The role of distinctiveness in recognition of faces as they become familiar, no. 36.
Abstract
Little research exists on the effect different stimuli can have on building familiarity
for faces. However, the literature which does indicates that there are certain stimuli which can
either help or hurt our ability to form familiarity. These factors include distinctiveness,
internal and external features, caricaturing, quality, movement, inversion, and context to
name a few (Johnston & Edmonds, 2009). The aim of this research was to test the effect of
distinctiveness on familiarity for faces and to test at which point familiarity occurs with the
hope of providing evidence for an instance theory of automaticity. A 5x3 within-subjects
design was used to test this and the study found no significant effect for distinctiveness,
however the experiment did show an improvement in accuracy, providing support for the
instance theory