Super recognizers: Increased sensitivity or reduced biases? Insights from serial dependence
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State: Public
Version: author
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_EADDC441223C
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Super recognizers: Increased sensitivity or reduced biases? Insights from serial dependence
Journal
Journal of Vision
ISSN
1534-7362
ISSN-L
1534-7362
Publication state
Published
Issued date
24/07/2024
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
24
Number
7
Pages
13
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Super recognizers (SRs) are people that exhibit a naturally occurring superiority for processing facial identity. Despite the increase of SR research, the mechanisms underlying their exceptional abilities remain unclear. Here, we investigated whether the enhanced facial identity processing of SRs could be attributed to the lack of sequential effects, such as serial dependence. In serial dependence, perception of stimulus features is assimilated toward stimuli presented in previous trials. This constant error in visual perception has been proposed as a mechanism that promotes perceptual stability in everyday life. We hypothesized that an absence of this constant source of error in SRs could account for their superior processing-potentially in a domain-general fashion. We tested SRs (n = 17) identified via a recently proposed diagnostic framework (Ramon, 2021) and age-matched controls (n = 20) with two experiments probing serial dependence in the face and shape domains. In each experiment, observers were presented with randomly morphed face identities or shapes and were asked to adjust a face's identity or a shape to match the stimulus they saw. We found serial dependence in controls and SRs alike, with no difference in its magnitude across groups. Interestingly, we found that serial dependence impacted the performance of SRs more than that of controls. Taken together, our results show that enhanced face identity processing skills in SRs cannot be attributed to the lack of serial dependence. Rather, serial dependence, a beneficial nested error in our visual system, may in fact further stabilize the perception of SRs and thus enhance their visual processing proficiency.
Pubmed
Open Access
Yes
Create date
29/07/2024 15:28
Last modification date
01/08/2024 7:04