I Recognize Your Face, But I Can't Remember Your Name: A Grown up Explanation

Abstract

C on tem p or ary m od els of face recogn ition exp lain everyd ay d if® culties in n am e retrieval by pro p osin g th at n am e infor m ation can on ly be acce sse d after sem an tic infor m ation (e.g. B ru ce & You ng , 1986) or by p ro p osin g an arch itecture w h ich p uts n am e retrieval at a disadv an tage (e.g. Bu r to n & B ru ce, 1992). E xp erim ents rep or ted h ere exam ined the tim e requ ired to access na m e an d sem an tic de tails by ad u lt an d ch ild su bjects. In E xp erim en t 1 ad ult su bjects took m or e tim e to m atch fam iliar faces to n am es th an to oth er sem an tic d etails (e.g. oc cup ation ), a ® n d ing co n sisten t w ith all the p reviou s liter atu re on n am e retrieval. E xp erim en t 2, h owever, sh ow ed th at th e youn gest su bjects w ere sign i® can tly faster in m atch ing fam iliar faces to na m es th an to sem antic d etails. E xp erim en t 3 also sh ow ed that children w ere faster at accessin g n am es th an occu p atio ns w h en giving vocal resp on ses to p resentatio n s of fam iliar faces. T h ese ® nd ings are n ot p red icted by rigidly sequ en tial m od els of face recogn ition an d are d iscu sse d w ith sp eci® c reference to th e o nto gen esis of m ode ls based on a m or e¯exible con nection ist arch itectu re.T he frustration of recognizing a person' s face bu t being unable to rem em ber their nam e is a com m o n exp erience w ith w hich we can all identify. In the ad ult face recog nition literature th is problem has been highlighted by investigations of the storage an d retrieval of people' s nam es an d other biog rap hical details such as their occupation . Young, H ay an d E llis (1985), in a d iary study, showed that subjects w ere reporting frequent experiences of know ing a person' s occupation w ithout being able to rem em ber their nam e. In laboratory stu dies of tip-of-the-ton gu e (T O T ) states, H an ley an d C ow ell (1988) dem o nstrated that su bjects could judge a face as fam iliar an d retrieve that person's occupation but still be unable to rem em ber th e p erson' s nam e. Johnston and Bruce (1990) also show ed a speed advan tage for accessing bio grap hical details over nam es. O ther evidence com es from lear ning experim ents that have show n that nam es are m ore dif® cult to lear n th an is other biogr ap hical infor m ation (C oh en & Fau lkner, 1986), an d this is true even for labels that can be u sed either as a nam e or an occupatio n, such as C arpenter or Baker (M cWeeny,Requ ests for rep rints shou ld be sent to L.C. Scan lan, Sch ool of P ysch ology, Un iversity of Wales, Colle ge of Cardiff, PO Box 901, C ardiff, CF 1 3YG, U.K . Em ail: saplcs@ cardiff.ac.u k This rese arch was sup ported by a departm ental stu dentship from the sch ool of psyc hology at the U niversit y of Wales, Cardiff. We wou ld like to than k A ndy Youn g, M ike Burton, and S erge Bre  dart for help ful com me nts on an earlier version of the m anu scrip t.