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Understanding gender bias in face recognition: effects of divided attention at encoding

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 16:34 authored by Matthew PalmerMatthew Palmer, Brewer, N, Horry, R
Prior research has demonstrated a female own-gender bias in face recognition, with females better at recognizing female faces thanmale faces.Weexplored the basis for this effect by examining the effect of divided attention during encoding on females' and males' recognition of female and male faces. For female participants, divided attention impaired recognition performance for female faces to a greater extent than male faces in a face recognition paradigm (Study 1; N=113) and an eyewitness identification paradigm (Study 2; N=502). Analysis of remember–know judgments (Study 2) indicated that divided attention at encoding selectively reduced female participants' recollection of female faces at test. For male participants, divided attention selectively reduced recognition performance (and recollection) for male stimuli in Study 2, but had similar effects on recognition of male and female faces in Study 1. Overall, the results suggest that attention at encoding contributes to the female own-gender bias by facilitating the later recollection of female faces.

History

Publication title

Acta Psychologica: International Journal of Psychonomics

Volume

142

Issue

2013

Pagination

362-369

ISSN

0001-6918

Department/School

School of Psychological Sciences

Publisher

Elsevier Science Bv

Place of publication

Po Box 211, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1000 Ae

Rights statement

Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in psychology

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