Towards an Exemplar Model of Face Processing: The Effects of Race and Distinctiveness

TLDR

Valentine’s multidimensional space framework encodes faces as locations in a high‑dimensional space and aims to unify effects of distinctiveness, inversion, and race, though applying the norm‑based coding model to race presents conceptual challenges. The study tests whether Valentine’s framework can explain distinctiveness and own‑race bias using four experiments with white British and Japanese faces and subjects. Four experiments were conducted with white British and Japanese faces presented to white British and Japanese students, assessing recognition memory, speed of intact versus jumbled face discrimination, and race‑classification tasks. Results showed an own‑race bias, that distinctive faces were recognized more accurately but did not interact with race, that typical faces were classified faster than distinctive ones, and that distinctiveness had a stronger effect for own‑race faces in race‑classification tasks, supporting a purely exemplar‑based model.

Abstract

Valentine (1991a, 1991b) described a theoretical framework for face recognition in which faces are encoded as locations in a multidimensional space. It was argued that this approach could provide a unified account of the effects of distinctiveness, inversion, and race on face recognition. In this paper we evaluate the ability of this theoretical framework to account for the effects of distinctiveness and race in four experiments in which white British and Japanese faces served as stimuli and both white British and Japanese students acted as subjects. In a recognition memory experiment the expected “own-race bias” was observed as a Race of Subject × Race of Face interaction. Distinctive faces were recognized more accurately than typical faces, but the effect of distinctiveness did not interact with the race of face or the race of subject. Typical faces were classified faster than distinctive faces in a task in which intact faces had to be distinguished from jumbled faces, as found in earlier work, and the effect of distinctiveness did not interact with the race of face or race of subject. In contrast, a task in which subjects classified faces according to their race did show a greater effect of distinctiveness for own-race faces. The results are discussed in relation to the two specific models within the multidimensional space framework identified by Valentine (1991a): a purely exemplar-based model and a norm-based coding model. It is argued that these results are more easily accommodated in terms of a purely exemplar-based model. Some conceptual problems in applying the norm-based coding model to the effect of race are discussed.