Abstract
The present study investigated the effects of cues on subjects’ abilities to retrieve the names of famous faces that they had previously been unable to recall. In Experiment 1 subjects were presented with a second photograph of the celebrity, or biographical information about the celebrity, or the celebrity’s initials. Each type of cue produced a quite different pattern of recall. Biographical information was least likely to elicit the name when the subject already knew the celebrity’s occupation, and most likely when subjects found the face familiar only. Conversely, initials were more likely to elicit the name when the occupation was already known than when the face was at first found unfamiliar or familiar only. Rather surprisingly, no significant differences were observed when a new photograph was used as a cue. In Experiment 2, the effects of a new photograph were compared with a condition in which the same photograph was presented twice. A new photograph was beneficial when subjects had previously found the face unfamiliar and when they found the face familiar only, but not when they knew the occupation. It is argued that these, as well as other aspects of the results, generally support the view that successive, but distinct stages are involved in face recognition, consistent with the model put forward by Bruce and Young (1986).
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baddeley, A. D. (1982). Domains of recollection.Psychological Review,89, 708–729.
Brown, R., &McNeill, D. (1966). The “tip of the tongue” phenomenon.Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior,5, 325–337.
Bruce, V. (1982). Changing faces. Visual and non-visual coding process in face recognition.British Journal of Psychology,73, 105–116.
Bruce, V., &Valentine, T. (1985). Identity priming in the recognition of familiar faces.British Journal of Psychology,76, 373–383
Bruce, V., &Valentine, T. (1986). Semantic priming of familiar faces.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,38A, 125–150.
Bruce, V., &Young, A. (1986). Understanding face recognition.British Journal of Psychology,77, 305–327.
Damasio, A. R., Damasio, H., &Van Hoeses, G. W. (1982). Prosopagnosia: Anatomical bases and behavioral mechanisms.Neurology,32, 331–341.
De Haan, E. H. F, Young, A. W., Newcombe, F. (1987). Face recognition without awareness.Cognitive Neuropsychology,4, 385–415.
Hanley, J. R., Young, A. W., & Pearson, N. A. (in press). Defective recognition of familiar people.Cognitive Neuropsychology.
Hart, J. T. (1965). Memory and the feeling of knowing experience.Journal of Educational Psychology,56, 208–216.
Hatfield, F. M., Howard, D., Barber, J., Joses, C., &Morton, J. (1977). Object naming in aphasics: The lack of effect of context or realism.Neuropsychologia,15, 717–727.
Hay, D. C., &Young, A. W. (1982). The human face. In A. W. Ellis (Ed.),Normality and pathology in cognitive functions (pp. 173–202). London Academic Press.
McWeeny, K. H., Young, A. W., Hay, D. C., &Ellis, A. W. (1987). Putting names to faces.British Journal of Psychology,78, 143- 149.
Morton, J. (1969). Interaction of information in word recognition.Psychological Review,76, 165–178.
Rochford, G., &Williams, M. (1962). Studies in the development and breakdown of the use of names: I. The relationship between nominal dysphasia and acquisition of vocabulary in childhood.Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry,25, 222–227.
Schwartz, M. F., Saffran, E. M., &Marin, O. S. M. (1980). Fractionating the reading process in dementia: Evidence for word specific print-to-sound associations. In M. Coltheart, K. Patterson, & J. C. Marshall (Eds.),Deep dyslexia (pp. 259–269). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Tranel, D., &Damasio, A. R. (1985). Knowledge without awareness: An autonomic index of facial recognition of prosopagnosics.Science,228, 1453–1454.
Warren, C., &Morton, J. (1982). The effects of priming on picture recognition.British Journal of Psychology,73, 117–129.
Yarmey, A. D. (1973). I recognize your face but I can’t remember your name: Further evidence on the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.Memory & Cognition,1, 287–290.
Young, A. W., Hay, D. C., &Ellis, A. W. (1985). The faces that launched a thousand slips: Everyday difficulties and errors in recognizing people.British Journal of Psychology,76, 495–523.
Young, A. W., McWeenv, K. H., Ellis, A. W., &Hay, D. C. (1986). Naming and categorizing faces and written names.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,38a, 297–318
Young, A. W., McWeeny, K. H., Hay, D. C, &Ellis, A. W. (1986). Access to identity-specific semantic codes from familiar faces.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,38A, 271–295.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hanley, J.R., Cowell, E.S. The effects of different types of retrieval cues on the recall of names of famous faces. Memory & Cognition 16, 545–555 (1988). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197056
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197056