The effect of experimental design on memory for typical and distinctive faces.

Abstract

The effect of experimental design on memory for typical and distinctive faces was investigated in three experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2, a between-subjects, between-lists (distinctive-only faces, or typical-only faces) manipulation of distinctiveness was compared with a within-subjects mixed-list design. The results demonstrated an interaction between design type and distinctiveness, indicating an increase in the rate of misidentifications and a decrease in the response criterion to distinctive faces in the distinctive-only set relative to distinctive faces in the mixed-list condition. Experiment 3 addressed the locus of this effect by comparing the standard mixed-list within-subjects design with two sets of faces in which the target images were different in type from the distractor images, i.e. a typical target-distinctive distractor set and a distinctive target-typical distractor set. The results of this experiment demonstrated that distinctive distractor faces were more readily rejected as new faces when typical target faces were included in the same set. The relative sensitivity of memory for typical and distinctive faces to manipulations of experimental design are discussed with reference to current models of facial distinctiveness.