Dennis C. Hay Instance Models and Face Processing 1 Repetition Priming of Face Gender Judgments: An Instance Based Explanation

Earlier studies of repetition priming using faces have been interpreted as indicating that such effects are confined to the processing of known faces. The experiment reported here employed 8 rather than the more usual 2 presentation trials and required subjects to make gender decisions ( is it a male or is it a female face?) to both familiar and unfamiliar faces. This allowed the currently favoured recognition unit theories of face processing to be compared with the Logan (1988) instance model. Equivalent repetition priming effects were observed for both familiar and unfamiliar faces and were well fitted by power functions. It is argued that the findings are consistent with the strong predictions made by Logan’s model and pose problems for recognition unit based theories