The Process Of Category-and Specific-Identity Information Retrieval In Face Perception

It is a debating issue that the process of retrieving identity information in faceperception is a serial or parallel processing. By comparing the reaction time and errorrate between the processing of occupation and name, some researchers proposed sometheories to explain the debating. However, there are two kinds of information inperson identity information, category identity and specific identity, the retrieval of thetwo kinds of information maybe different, the previous researches didn't distinguishthem. That may lead the debate of serial and parallel process in different levels. Thisstudy explores the retrieval process of categorical and specific identity information bycomparing the performances between the different retrieving tasks, and differentretrieval cues. This study may understand better the retrieval processes of identityinformation, richen the theories of face perception, and help to constructing computerface recognition model.Experiment 1 examines the retrieving process of the two kinds information bycomparing the reaction time and error rate between gender-judgment task andcouple-judgment task. In experiment 1, stimuli are four face-name (face with hair andname with non-gender cue) combinations, that is, face-face, face-name, name-faceand name-name. Experiment 2, the retrieving process is further examined bycomparing the process between with-hairs and without-hairs face. Experiment 3,whether semantic processing is needed in category information retrieving bycomparing the process between names with gender and non-gender cue. In experiment3, the face with-hair stimuli are used. The results show (1) the retrieving processes of the two kinds of information aredifferent; (2) semantic processing is not necessary in the retrieving of the categoryinformation, but the category information can be used in semantic processing; (3)when identity can be retrieved by categorical information, the specific identityinformation is not processed further; but when categorical identity information isinsufficient, some specific information must be retrieved; (4) the debate of the processof identity information retrieval may be caused by confusing up the two kinds ofidentity information.