A visual and semantic locus to beneficial effects of verbalization on face memory.

We examined the effect of verbally describing a face on face memory as assessed in an old-new recognition task. Verbal facilitation, measured by a difference between verbalization and control conditions, was greater for upright than for inverted faces and greater for unfamiliar than for familiar faces. We propose that generating a verbal description enhances the processing of global visual information that differentiates an individual face from other faces that are encountered and also improves recognition through the association of visually derived semantic information. Verbalization enhances visual and semantic distinctiveness in memory.

[1]  J. Schooler,et al.  Verbal vulnerability of perceptual expertise. , 1995, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[2]  J. G. Snodgrass,et al.  Does the generation effect occur for pictures? , 2000, The American journal of psychology.

[3]  S. L. Sporer,et al.  The application of multiple lineups in a field study , 2008 .

[4]  Frédéric Gosselin,et al.  Diagnostic use of scale information for componential and holistic recognition. , 2003 .

[5]  Hervé Abdi,et al.  What Are the Routes to Face Recognition , 2003 .

[6]  J. Schooler,et al.  Verbal overshadowing of visual memories: Some things are better left unsaid , 1990, Cognitive Psychology.

[7]  J. Hampton,et al.  Item-Specific Processing and the Generation Effect: Support for a Distinctiveness Account , 1988 .

[8]  J. Bartlett,et al.  Inversion and Configuration of Faces , 1993, Cognitive Psychology.

[9]  Z. Peynircioǧlu,et al.  The revelation effect: when disguising test items induces recognition. , 1990, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[10]  W. Donaldson Measuring recognition memory. , 1992, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[11]  Mark A. McDaniel,et al.  A contextual account of the generation effect: A three-factor theory ☆ , 1988 .

[12]  Roderick Hunt,et al.  The Enigma of Organization and Distinctiveness , 1993 .

[13]  R. Marsh,et al.  A decrement-to-familiarity interpretation of the revelation effect from forced-choice tests of recognition memory. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[14]  J. S. Nairne,et al.  Dissociative effects of generation on item and order retention. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[15]  I. Begg,et al.  The generation effect is no artifact: Generating makes words distinctive. , 1989 .

[16]  G. Hole,et al.  Featural and Configurational Processes in the Recognition of Faces of Different Familiarity , 2000, Perception.

[17]  V. Bruce,et al.  Recognizing objects and faces , 1994 .

[18]  N. Kerr,et al.  Effects of contextual elaboration on face recognition , 1982, Memory & cognition.

[19]  Timothy J. Perfect,et al.  Verbal overshadowing in voice recognition , 2002 .

[20]  G. Wells,et al.  Memory for faces: Encoding and retrieval operations , 1984, Memory & cognition.

[21]  Karl-Heinz T. Bäuml,et al.  Verbalising visual memories , 2008 .

[22]  Jonathan W Schooler,et al.  Skimming the Surface , 2004, Psychological science.

[23]  Marcia K. Johnson,et al.  The verbal overshadowing effect: Why descriptions impair face recognition , 1997, Memory & cognition.

[24]  N. Mulligan The emergent generation effect and hypermnesia: influences of semantic and nonsemantic generation tasks. , 2002, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[25]  Charity Brown,et al.  Verbal overshadowing of multiple face recognition: Effects on remembering and knowing over time , 2008 .

[26]  S. L. Sporer,et al.  Verbal and Visual Processes in Person Identification , 1989 .

[27]  J. Schooler,et al.  The Misremembrance of Wines Past: Verbal and Perceptual Expertise Differentially Mediate Verbal Overshadowing of Taste Memory , 1996 .

[28]  Charity Brown,et al.  Verbal overshadowing in a multiple face presentation paradigm: effects of description instruction , 2002 .

[29]  J. Read,et al.  Rehearsal and recognition of human faces. , 1979 .

[30]  W Gerbino,et al.  Mental image reversal and verbal recoding: When ducks become rabbits , 1993, Memory & cognition.

[31]  Charity Brown,et al.  Verbal overshadowing of perceptual discrimination , 2006, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[32]  Charity Brown,et al.  Beneficial effects of verbalization and visual distinctiveness on remembering and knowing faces , 2006, Memory & cognition.

[33]  K. L. Bailis,et al.  Self-reference in facial recognition , 1981 .

[34]  Jonathan W. Schooler,et al.  Why do words hurt? Content, process, and criterion shift accounts of verbal overshadowing , 2008 .

[35]  Kevin M. Brooks,et al.  Thoughts beyond words : When language overshadows insight , 1993 .

[36]  Charity Brown,et al.  Verbal overshadowing of multiple face and car recognition: effects of within‐ versus across‐category verbal descriptions , 2003 .

[37]  P. Schyns,et al.  Show Me the Features! Understanding Recognition From the Use of Visual Information , 2002, Psychological science.

[38]  M. Endo Perception of Upside-Down Faces: An Analysis from the Viewpoint of Cue Saliency , 1986 .

[39]  D. Westerman,et al.  The revelation that the revelation effect is not due to revelation. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[40]  C Neil Macrae,et al.  Do I Know You? Processing Orientation and Face Recognition , 2002, Psychological science.

[41]  M. Wogalter Describing Faces from Memory: Accuracy and Effects on Subsequent Recognition Performance , 1996 .

[42]  E. Erdfelder,et al.  Determ inants of Positive and Negative Generation Effects in Free Recall , 1998, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[43]  W. Dunlap,et al.  Meta-Analysis of Experiments With Matched Groups or Repeated Measures Designs , 1996 .

[44]  M. Burton,et al.  The role of verbal processing at different stages of recognition memory for faces , 2008 .

[45]  S. Lewandowsky,et al.  Verbalizing facial memory: criterion effects in verbal overshadowing. , 2004, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[46]  Michael A. McDaniel,et al.  The generation effect: A meta-analytic review , 2007, Memory & cognition.

[47]  Z. Peynircioǧlu The generation effect with pictures and nonsense figures , 1989 .

[48]  S. Carey,et al.  Are faces perceived as configurations more by adults than by children , 1994 .

[49]  C M Kelley,et al.  The influence of retrieval processes in verbal overshadowing , 2001, Memory & cognition.

[50]  G. Rhodes Looking at Faces: First-Order and Second-Order Features as Determinants of Facial Appearance , 1988, Perception.

[51]  Neil W. Mulligan,et al.  Self-Generation and Memory , 2004 .

[52]  Siegfried Ludwig Sporer Person descriptions as retrieval cues: Do they really help? , 2007 .

[53]  A. Young,et al.  Understanding face recognition. , 1986, British journal of psychology.

[54]  S. L. Sporer,et al.  Person descriptions and person identifications: Verbal overshadowing or recognition criterion shift? , 2008 .

[55]  S. L. Sporer,et al.  Deep--deeper--deepest? Encoding strategies and the recognition of human faces. , 1991, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[56]  A. Oliva,et al.  Dr. Angry and Mr. Smile: when categorization flexibly modifies the perception of faces in rapid visual presentations , 1999, Cognition.

[57]  V. Bruce,et al.  The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A: Human Experimental Psychology When Inverted Faces Are Recognized: the Role of Configural Information in Face Recognition , 2022 .

[58]  R A Johnston,et al.  Understanding face recognition with an interactive activation model. , 1990, British journal of psychology.

[59]  A. Young,et al.  Aspects of face processing , 1986 .

[60]  James W. Tanaka,et al.  What causes the face inversion effect , 1995 .

[61]  G. Bower,et al.  Depth of processing pictures of faces and recognition memory , 1974 .

[62]  Jonathan K. Foster,et al.  Memory : systems, process, or function? , 1999 .

[63]  A. Paivio Imagery and verbal processes , 1972 .

[64]  Adrian Schwaninger,et al.  Role of Featural and Configural Information in Familiar and Unfamiliar Face Recognition , 2002, Biologically Motivated Computer Vision.

[65]  V Bruce,et al.  Naming faces and naming names: exploring an interactive activation model of person recognition. , 1993, Memory.

[66]  S. Mudd,et al.  Depth of processing approach to face recognition: A test of two theories. , 1991 .

[67]  Toby J. Lloyd-Jones,et al.  Outline shape is a mediator of object recognition that is particularly important for living things , 2002, Memory & cognition.

[68]  J. Larsen,et al.  Verbal-overshadowing effect: evidence for a general shift in processing. , 1997, The American journal of psychology.

[69]  W. Donaldson,et al.  Accuracy of d′ and A′ as estimates of sensitivity , 1993 .

[70]  C. Meissner,et al.  A theoretical review and meta-analysis of the description-identification relationship in memory for faces , 2008 .

[71]  A. Shimamura,et al.  Monitoring item and source information: Evidence for a negative generation effect in source memory , 1999, Memory & cognition.

[72]  Charity Brown,et al.  Verbal facilitation of face recognition , 2005, Memory & cognition.

[73]  Bruno Rossion,et al.  Faces are "spatial"--holistic face perception is supported by low spatial frequencies. , 2006, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[74]  E Winograd,et al.  Elaboration and distinctiveness in memory for faces. , 1981, Journal of experimental psychology. Human learning and memory.

[75]  M. Wogalter Effects of Post-exposure Description and Imaging on Subsequent Face Recognition Performance , 1991 .