Tim Valentine

A unified account of the effects of distinctiveness, inversion, and race in face recognition

A framework is outlined in which individual faces are assumed to be encoded as a point in a multidimensional space, defined by dimensions that serve to discriminate faces. It is proposed that such a framework can account for the effects of distinctiveness, inversion, and race on recognition of faces. Two specific models within this framework are identified: a norm-based coding model, in which faces are encoded as vectors from a population norm or prototype; and a purely exemplar-based model. Both models make similar predictions, albeit in different ways, concerning the interactions between the effects of distinctiveness, inversion and race. These predictions were supported in five experiments in which photographs of faces served as stimuli. The norm-based coding version and the exemplar-based version of the framework cannot be distinguished on the basis of the experiments reported, but it is argued that a multidimensional space provides a useful heuristic framework to investigate recognition of faces. Finally, the relationship between the specific models is considered and an implementation in terms of parallel distributed processing is briefly discussed.

Towards an Exemplar Model of Face Processing: The Effects of Race and Distinctiveness

Valentine (1991a, 1991b) described a theoretical framework for face recognition in which faces are encoded as locations in a multidimensional space. It was argued that this approach could provide a unified account of the effects of distinctiveness, inversion, and race on face recognition. In this paper we evaluate the ability of this theoretical framework to account for the effects of distinctiveness and race in four experiments in which white British and Japanese faces served as stimuli and both white British and Japanese students acted as subjects. In a recognition memory experiment the expected “own-race bias” was observed as a Race of Subject × Race of Face interaction. Distinctive faces were recognized more accurately than typical faces, but the effect of distinctiveness did not interact with the race of face or the race of subject. Typical faces were classified faster than distinctive faces in a task in which intact faces had to be distinguished from jumbled faces, as found in earlier work, and the effect of distinctiveness did not interact with the race of face or race of subject. In contrast, a task in which subjects classified faces according to their race did show a greater effect of distinctiveness for own-race faces. The results are discussed in relation to the two specific models within the multidimensional space framework identified by Valentine (1991a): a purely exemplar-based model and a norm-based coding model. It is argued that these results are more easily accommodated in terms of a purely exemplar-based model. Some conceptual problems in applying the norm-based coding model to the effect of race are discussed.

An investigation of the contact hypothesis of the own-race bias in face recognition.

Although previous studies have demonstrated that faces of ones own race are recognized more accurately than are faces of other races, the theoretical basis of this effect is not clearly understood at present. The experiment reported in this paper tested the contact hypothesis of the own-race bias in face recognition using a cross-cultural design. Four groups of subjects were tested for their recognition of distinctive and typical own-race and other-race faces: (1) black Africans who had a high degree of contact with white faces, (2) black Africans who had little or no contact with white faces, (3) white Africans who had a high degree of contact with black faces, and (4) white Britons who had little contact with black faces. The results showed that although on the whole subjects recognized own-race faces more accurately and more confidently than they recognized other-race faces, the own-race bias in face recognition was significantly smaller among the high-contact subjects than it was among the low-contact subjects. Also, although high-contact black and white subjects showed significant main effects of distinctiveness in their recognition of faces of both races, low-contact black and white subjects showed significant main effects of distinctiveness only in their recognition of own-race faces. It is argued that these results support the contact hypothesis of the own-race bias in face recognition and Valentines multidimensional space (MDS) framework of face encoding.

What's in a name ? Access to information from people's names

Abstract The processing of peoples names is contrasted with face recognition and word recognition. The effects of the familiarity of initial and surnames and frequency of surnames (the number of people with the same surname) were investigated in several tasks. It was found that the effects of name familiarity and surname frequency were analogous to the effects of word frequency in tasks which did not require access to memory for individuals (a nationality decision and naming latency). In tasks which do require access to memory for individuals (familiarity decision and a semantic classification), the effect of surname frequency was analogous to the effect of distinctive-ness in face recognition. The results are discussed in terms of a functional model of name processing in which name recognition units mediate between the output of word recognition units and access to identity-specific semantics.

An Interactive Activation Model of Face Naming

Burton and Bruces (1992) model of face naming predicts a “fan effect”, in which naming of famous people about whom many descriptive properties are known should be slower than naming of celebrities about whom few properties are known. An experiment is reported that showed that, contrary to this prediction, knowledge of many descriptive properties facilitated face-naming latency. An alternative architecture for an interactive activation model is proposed in which descriptive properties are represented in separate pools of units for each domain of information and in which names are represented by a separate pool of lexical output units. Computer simulations showed that this model could simulate the previously available empirical data as effectively as Burton and Bruces (1992) original model. However, the proposed model could also simulate the effect of the number of known descriptive properties upon face-naming latency observed in the experiment reported. The new architecture also has the advantage of being more compatible with current models of speech production, and it allows preserved access to unique semantic properties in the context of impaired face naming as reported in the neuropsychological literature.

Priming Production of People's Names

Surnames of celebrities that are English words (e.g. “Wood”, “Bush”, “Sleep”) were used to explore the relationship between production of common names and proper names that share the same phonology. No effect of priming of face naming latency was found from a prime task in which a written common name was presented and was read aloud, even when subjects were informed the words that they would read aloud were surnames. Production of common names to complete a sentence did not prime famous-face naming. However, the reaction time required to name a famous face by articulating the surname only was primed by seeing the written full name of the celebrity, whether the surname was read aloud or an occupation decision or a familiarity decision was made. No effect of priming was found if the test task did not require name production. The results are interpreted in terms of the information-processing model of face, name, and word recognition proposed by Valentine, Brédart, Lawson, and Ward (1991). It is concluded that the effect of repetition reflects greater accessibility of lexical output codes resulting from an increase in the weight on links from person identity nodes to the output lexicon. Access to the output lexicon is assumed to be mandatory from written input. Common names access the output lexicon from the word recognition system rather than the person recognition system and therefore do not prime face naming latency.

Repetition priming and proper name processing. Do common names and proper names prime each other

Three experiments are reported in which a repetition priming technique was used to investigate whether recognition of a persons surname which is also a known word (e.g. Baker) activates the lexical representation that mediates word recognition. Experiment 1 showed that a familiarity decision to familiar full names produced an effect of repetition priming on subsequent lexical decision to words that were presented in the initial task as surnames. Experiment 2 demonstrated that, conversely, a lexical decision primed subsequent familiarity decision to full names involving the same word. Experiment 3 showed that repeating the same decision during the initial and test phases did not produce a larger repetition priming effect than that obtained when the task at test differed from the prime task (name familiarity decision vs lexical decision or vice versa). The results are interpreted as support for the view that repetition priming is due to repeated activation of representations that are accessed by both common names and proper names.

Linear and nonlinear effects of aging on categorizing and naming faces

Subjects aged 54-84 performed 5 separate tasks involving various aspects of face processing: structural decisions (1), familiarity decisions (2), semantic decisions (3), first-name decisions (4), and name retrieval (5). For the categorization tasks (1-4), the mean reaction times for the older subjects (over 65) were plotted against the corresponding means for the younger subjects (under 65). This produced a linear function (slope greater than 1, intercept less than 0), providing only partial support for a simple, multiplicative model of cognitive slowing with age. Reaction time distributions were also plotted for each of the 5 tasks (older vs. younger subjects). The resulting functions were almost perfectly linear, with the exception of name retrieval, which was exponential with respect to age. This was attributed to the increased probability of a tip-of-the-tongue state with age caused by insufficient activation at the level of the name information (the final state of face identification).

Naming Faces: The Effects of Facial Distinctiveness and Surname Frequency

The effects of the frequency of a surname in the population and of the distinctiveness of a face on the latency to name famous faces were explored. Distinctive faces were named more quickly than were typical faces. Celebrities with low-frequency surnames were named faster than celebrities with high-frequency surnames, but only if their faces were distinctive. Subsequent experiments showed that the effect of surname frequency could not be attributed to differences in the articulatory onsets of the surnames and was not present in a task that did not require a naming response. Experiments in which surnames were taught to previously unfamiliar faces showed that familiar surnames (e.g. the surnames of celebrities) were produced more rapidly than were unfamiliar surnames. If familiar surnames were taught, no effect of surname frequency was observed. It is concluded that lexical access to peoples’ names is frequency sensitive—surnames shared by few individuals are accessed faster than are high-frequency surnames. However, when learning names to unfamiliar faces, familiar surnames (i.e. the surnames of people already known to the subject) are learned and accessed more quickly than unfamiliar surnames.