Overt and Covert Recognition of Faces in Children and Adults

Abstract

There has been considerable recent interest in covert face-recognition effects In Experiment 1, we adapted a paradigm, previously shown to produce covert recognition effects, to test 5-year-old children Classmates' photographs served as the familiar faces Children showed effects of familiarity on face matching similar to the effects normal adults and prosopagnosics had previously shown for famous faces In Experiment 2, we investigated whether brief familiarization with the photographs used in Experiment I would suffice to produce the effects, in children and adults It did not, even though the exposure did lead to above-chance overt recognition Taken together with previous studies, the data suggest that covert recognition may be doubly dissociable from overt recognition Finding a double dissociation would place constraints on models of face recognition