Expertise in person recognition

Abstract

The dramatic effect of inversion on the episodic recognition of unfamiliar faces has been considered as proof of specific mechanisms for the processing of faces. This view was challenged by Diamond and Carey (1986), who observed similar effects when photographs of dogs were shown to dog experts. However, they compared experts with younger novices, they used identical photographs at encoding and at test, their experts were no more accurate than the novices in the recognition of dogs, and dog recognition is remote from other inputs to the person recognition system such as natural handwriting. In Experiment 1, the results of Diamond and Carey were replicated with natural handwriting as stimuli, with novices matched in age to the experts, and with different structural representations of the targets at encoding and during the recognition test. In Experiment 2, younger novices participated, but this did not affect the pattern of results. Experiment 3 showed that the results were not due to floor effects. © 1992, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.