Naming and Categorizing Faces and Written Names

In naming and categorization tasks, subjects were able to name aloud written names faster than photographs of faces, but were usually able to classify faces on familiarity (Experiment 1) or occupation (Experiments 2, 3 and 4) faster than written names. Faces were categorized faster than they were named, but written names were named faster than they could be categorized. Experiment 5 showed that familiar names were named more quickly than “rearranged” names made by exchanging the first and second names of familiar people. This pattern of findings is consistent with the view that faces can only access name (phonological) codes via an intervening semantic representation, whereas written names can access semantic and name codes in parallel. In this respect, faces show properties similar to those of other visual objects, despite a priori reasons why this might not have been expected to be the case.

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