Effect of Facial Familiarity and Task Requirement on Electrodermal Activity

We examined the effect of facial familiarity and task requirement on electrodermal activity (EDA). Proposed models of facial recognition suggest a sequential process wherein a recognition of familiarity precedes any identity-specific search. Prior research has indicated that an automatic increase in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American journal of psychology 1996-03, Vol.109 (1), p.131-137
Main Authors: Shearer, Donald, Mikulka, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Comparison
Conditioned response
Conditioned responses
Control groups
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Electrodes
Electrophysiology
Esthetics
Face
Face perception
Face recognition
Female
Form Perception - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Galvanic Skin Response
Humans
Male
Names
Presentation slides
Prosopagnosia
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychophysiology
Recognition (Memory)
Recognition (Psychology)
Requirements
Tasks
Test ranges
Verbal Behavior
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Description
Summary:We examined the effect of facial familiarity and task requirement on electrodermal activity (EDA). Proposed models of facial recognition suggest a sequential process wherein a recognition of familiarity precedes any identity-specific search. Prior research has indicated that an automatic increase in EDA occurs to familiar faces. We reexamined this effect while manipulating the task requirement. One group of subjects was required to identify (name) faces, and a control group was required to rate facial attractiveness. The results indicated that an increase in EDA to familiar faces occurred only when coupled with the identification task. No increase in EDA occurred when subjects were rating facial attractiveness and presented with a familiar face.
ISSN:0002-9556
1939-8298
DOI:10.2307/1422930