Elements of person knowledge: Episodic recollection helps us to identify people but not to recognize their faces

Abstract

Faces automatically draw attention, allowing rapid assessments of personality and likely behaviour. How we respond to people is, however, highly dependent on whether we know who they are. According to face processing models person knowledge comes from an extended neural system that includes structures linked to episodic memory. Here we use scalp recorded brain signals to demonstrate the specific role of episodic memory processes during face processing. In two experiments we recorded Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) while participants made identify, familiar or unknown responses to famous faces. ERPs revealed neural signals previously associated with episodic recollection for identify but not familiar faces. These findings provide novel evidence suggesting that recollection is central to face processing, providing one source of person knowledge that can be used to moderate the initial impressions gleaned from the core neural system that supports face recognition.

Episodic Memory Reliving and Personality

“…It is possible that mental time travel and autobiographical remembering, in general, is one of the motivational tools for defining how individuals perceive themselves (McAdams & Pals, 2006). Studies have indeed shown that episodic recollection helps us identify people (MacKenzie & Donaldson, 2016) and make rapid social inferences (Klein et al, 2009). According to Davidson et al (2012), episodic memory may serve as a kind of “social glue,” enabling people to form and maintain social bonds more easily.…”