The influence of familiarity on sex decisions

According to some accounts of face recognition (e.g., Bruce & Young, 1986), gender analysis occurs independently of identity analysis and, as a consequence, no influence of familiarity should be found on the time taken to perform sex decisions. Results of recent behavioural studies cast doubt upon this claim. Two experiments are reported that explore the influence of familiarity on sex decisions to faces (Experiment 1) and surnames (Experiment 2) of different levels of familiarity. In Experiment 1, participants were able to assign sex faster to highly familiar faces than they were to unfamiliar faces. Therefore, familiarity can influence the speed at which sex is analysed from faces. Similarly, in Experiment 2, participants were able to assign sex and familiarity faster to highly familiar surnames than they were to moderately familiar surnames. These findings are discussed in relation to the influence of sex information from identity-specific semantics and an explanation is offered based on the Burton, Bruce, and Johnston (1990) IAC model of face recognition.