Abstract
Incidental recognition memory for faces previously exposed as task-irrelevant distractors was assessed as a function of the attentional load of an unrelated task performed on superimposed letter strings at exposure. In Experiment 1, subjects were told to ignore the faces and either to judge the color of the letters (low load) or to search for an angular target letter among other angular letters (high load). A surprise recognition memory test revealed that despite the irrelevance of all faces at exposure, those exposed under low-load conditions were later recognized, but those exposed under high-load conditions were not. Experiment 2 found a similar pattern when both the high- and low-load tasks required shape judgments for the letters but made differing attentional demands. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that high load in a nonface task can significantly reduce even immediate recognition of a fixated face from the preceding trial. These results demonstrate that load in a nonface domain (e.g., letter shape) can reduce face recognition, in accord with Lavie’s load theory. In addition to their theoretical impact, these results may have practical implications for eyewitness testimony.
Article PDF
References
Burton, A. M., Young, A. W., Bruce, V., Johnston, R. A., &Ellis, A.W. (1991). Understanding covert recognition.Cognition,39, 129–166.
Devlin, the Hon. Lord Patrick (1976).Report to the Secretary of State for the Home Department of the Departmental Committee on Evidence of Identification in Criminal Cases. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
Farah, M. J., Levinson, K. L., &Klein, K. L. (1995). Face perception and within-category discrimination in prosopagnosia.Neuropsychologia,33, 661–674.
Fodor, J. A. (1983).The modularity of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gardiner, J. M., &Parkin, A. J. (1990). Attention and recollective experience in recognition memory.Memory & Cognition,18, 579–583.
Goldstein, A. G., &Chance, J. E. (1970). Visual recognition memory for complex configurations.Perception & Psychophysics,9, 237–241.
Goldstein, E. B., &Fink, S. I. (1981). Selective attention in vision: Recognition memory for superimposed line drawings.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,7, 954–967.
Hancock, P. J. B., Bruce, V., &Burton, A. M. (2000). Recognition of unfamiliar faces.Trends in Cognitive Sciences,4, 330–337.
Jenkins, R., Burton, A. M., &Ellis, A.W. (2002). Long-term effects of covert face recognition.Cognition,86, B43-B52.
Kanwisher, N. (2000). Domain specificity in face perception.Nature Neuroscience,3, 759–763.
Kellogg, R. T. (1980). Is conscious attention necessary for long-term storage?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning & Memory,6, 379–390.
Kellogg, R. T., Cocklin, T., &Bourne, L. E., Jr. (1982). Conscious attentional demands of encoding and retrieval from long-term memory.American Journal of Psychology,95, 183–198.
Lavie, N. (1995). Perceptual load as a necessary condition for selective attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,21, 451–468.
Lavie, N. (2000). Selective attention and cognitive control: Dissociating attentional functions through different types of load. In S. Monsell & J. Driver (Eds.),Control of cognitive processes: Attention and performance XVIII (pp. 175–194). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lavie, N. (2001). Capacity limits in selective attention: Behavioral evidence and implications for neural activity. In J. Braun, C. Koch, & J. L. Davis (Eds.),Visual attention and cortical circuits (pp. 49–68). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lavie, N., &Cox, S. (1997). On the efficiency of visual selective attention: Efficient visual search leads to inefficient distractor rejection.Psychological Science,8, 395–398.
Lavie, N., Ro, T., &Russell, C. (2003). The role of perceptual load in processing distractor faces.Psychological Science,14, 510–515.
Mack, A., &Rock, I. (1998).Inattentional blindness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Reinitz, M. T., Morrissey, J., &Demb, J. (1994). Role of attention in face encoding.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition,20, 161–168.
Ro, T., Russell, C., &Lavie, N. (2001). Changing faces: A detection advantage in the flicker paradigm.Psychological Science,12, 94–99.
Rock, I., &Gutman, D. (1981). The effect of inattention on form perception.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,7, 275–285.
Rock, I., Schauer, R., &Halper, F. (1976). Form perception without attention.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,28, 429–440.
Scapinello, K. F., &Yarmey, A. D. (1970). The role of familiarity and orientation in immediate and delayed recognition of pictorial stimuli.Psychonomic Science,21, 329–331.
Tanaka, J. W., &Farah, M. J. (1993). Parts and wholes in face recognition.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,46A, 225–245.
Tanaka, J. W., &Sengco, J. A. (1997). Features and their configuration in face recognition.Memory & Cognition,25, 583–592.
Treisman, A. M., &Gelade, G. (1980). A feature-integration theory of attention.Cognitive Psychology,12, 97–136.
Wells, G. L. (1993). What do we know about eyewitness identification?American Psychologist,48, 553–571.
Wells, G. L., Malpass, R. S., Lindsay, R. C. L., Fisher, R. P., Turtle, J. W., &Fulero, S. M. (2000). From the lab to the police station: A successful application of eyewitness research.American Psychologist,55, 581–598.
Wojciulik, E., Kanwisher, N., &Driver, J. (1998). Covert visual attention modulates face-specific activity in the human fusiform gyrus: fMRI study.Journal of Neurophysiology,79, 1574–1578.
Yin, R. K. (1969). Looking at upside-down faces.Journal of Experimental Psychology,81, 141–145.
Young, A. W., &Burton, A. M. (1999). Simulating face recognition: Implications for modelling cognition.Cognitive Neuropsychology,16, 1–48.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by a studentship awarded to J.D., in support of R.J., from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC, U.K.); a postdoctoral fellowship award from the British Academy to R.J.; a BBSRC Project Grant to N.L.; and a Medical Research Council (U.K.) Career Award to N.L.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jenkins, R., Lavie, N. & Driver, J. Recognition memory for distractor faces depends on attentional load at exposure. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 12, 314–320 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196378
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196378