Perceptual integrality of sex and identity of faces: further evidence for the single-route hypothesis.

Full Abstract

According to current face-recognition models, sex (gender) and identity of faces are processed in independent routes. Using Garner's speeded-classification task, the authors provide evidence that sex and identity are processed within a single route. In 4 experiments, participants judged the sex or the familiarity of faces while the other dimension remained constant or varied randomly. The results of Experiments 1, 2, and 4 showed that participants could not selectively attend to either sex or familiarity without being influenced by the other, irrelevant dimension. Thus, identity and sex are integral dimensions. Experiment 3 provided evidence that when sex judgments are based on hairstyle heuristics, false separability can emerge. The findings support the claim that identity and sex are processed within a single route.

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Author information

Author/s: Ganel, Tzvi (T); Goshen-Gottstein, Yonatan (Y);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel. ganel(-atsign-)freud.tau.ac.il

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance (J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Aug; vol 28 (issue 4) : pp 854-67

Dates: Created 2002/08/22; Completed 2003/01/30; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12190254, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Face
Female
Humans
Judgment
Male

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