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Abstract We provide the first examination of individual differences in the efficiency of face learning. Investigating individual differences in face learning can illuminate potential mechanisms and provide greater understanding of why certain individuals might be more efficient face learners. Participants completed two unfamiliar face matching tasks and a learning task in which learning was assessed after viewing 1, 3, 6, and 9 images of to-be-learned identities. Individual differences in the slope of face learning (i.e., increases in sensitivity to identity) were predicted by the ability to discriminate between matched (same-identity) vs. mismatched (different-identity) pairs of wholly unfamiliar faces. A Dual Process Signal Detection model showed that three parameters increased with learning: Familiarity (an unconscious type of memory that varies in strength), recollection-old (conscious recognition of a learned identity), and recollection-new (conscious/confident rejection of novel identities). Good (vs. poor) matchers had higher Recollection-Old scores throughout learning and showed a steeper increase in Recollection-New. We conclude that good matchers are better able to capitalize on exposure to within-person variability in appearance, an effect that is attributable to their conscious memory for both learned and novel faces. These results have applied implications and will inform contemporary and traditional models of face identification.

Abstract People often find it more difficult to recognize other- than own-race faces. This other-race effect is robust across numerous ethnic groups. Yet, it remains unclear how this effect changes in people who live in a multiracial environment, and in immigrants whose lifetime perceptual experience changes over time. In the present study, we developed a novel face recognition test that approximates face recognition in the real world. We tested five groups of White and East Asian adults (n = 120) living in racially homogeneous versus heterogeneous cities and East Asians who immigrated to a multiracial city between infancy and adulthood. Multiracial cities reduce the other-race effect. The magnitude of the other-race effect changes as a function of experience, mirroring the racial diversity in perceivers’ living environment. Our study highlights the challenge of forming reliable face representations across naturalistic facial variability and suggests a facilitative role of multiracial environments in eliminating the other-race effect.

The accuracy and speed with which emotional facial expressions are identified is influenced by body postures. Two influential models predict that these congruency effects will be largest when the emotion displayed in the face is similar to that displayed in the body: the emotional seed model and the dimensional model. These models differ in whether similarity is based on physical characteristics or underlying dimensions of valence and arousal. Using a 3-alternative forced-choice task in which stimuli were presented briefly (Exp 1a) or for an unlimited time (Exp 1b) we provide evidence that congruency effects are more complex than either model predicts; the effects are asymmetrical and cannot be accounted for by similarity alone. Fearful postures are especially influential when paired with facial expressions, but not when presented in a flanker task (Exp 2). We suggest refinements to each model that may account for our results and suggest that additional studies be conducted prior to drawing strong theoretical conclusions.

Adults with auditory-visual synesthesia agree that higher pitched sounds induce smaller, brighter visual percepts. We have hypothesized that these correspondences are remnants of cross-modal neural connections that are present at birth and that influence the development of perception and language even in adults and children without synesthesia. In this study, we explored these correspondences in preschoolers (30-36 months; n 12 per experiment). The children were asked to indicate which of two bouncing balls was making a centrally located sound. The balls varied in size and/or surface darkness; the sound varied in pitch. The children reliably matched the higher pitched sound to a smaller and lighter (white) ball (Experiment 1), to a lighter (white) ball (Experiment 2), and in one of two groups, to a smaller ball (Experiment 3). Children's matching of pitch and size cannot be attributed to intensity matching or to learning. These data support the hypothesis that some cross-modal correspondences may be remnants of the neural mechanisms underlying neonatal perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The facial width-to-height ratio (face ratio), is a sexually dimorphic metric associated with actual aggression in men and with observers' judgements of aggression in male faces. Here, we sought to determine if observers' judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio in female faces. In three studies, participants rated photographs of female and male faces on aggression, femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and nurturing. In Studies 1 and 2, for female and male faces, judgements of aggression were associated with the face ratio even when other cues in the face related to masculinity were controlled statistically. Nevertheless, correlations between the face ratio and judgements of aggression were smaller for female than for male faces (F(1,36) = 7.43, p = 0.01). In Study 1, there was no significant relationship between judgements of femininity and of aggression in female faces. In Study 2, the association between judgements of masculinity and aggression was weaker in female faces than for male faces in Study 1. The weaker association in female faces may be because aggression and masculinity are stereotypically male traits. Thus, in Study 3, observers rated faces on nurturing (a stereotypically female trait) and on femininity. Judgements of nurturing were associated with femininity (positively) and masculinity (negatively) ratings in both female and male faces. In summary, the perception of aggression differs in female versus male faces. The sex difference was not simply because aggression is a gendered construct; the relationships between masculinity/femininity and nurturing were similar for male and female faces even though nurturing is also a gendered construct. Masculinity and femininity ratings are not associated with aggression ratings nor with the face ratio for female faces. In contrast, all four variables are highly inter-correlated in male faces, likely because these cues in male faces serve as "honest signals".