Bruce And Youngs Theory Of Face Recognition

Question 1

What are the two approaches of face recognition?

Answer 1

Bruce and Young’s theory which suggest face recognition is different to the recognition of objects and requires specific parts of the brain
Or
That we recognise faces like we recognise any other objects and no specific areas of the brain are used

Question 2

What type of system is used in Bruce and Young’s theory?

Answer 2

A holistic system involving interrelationships between different features

Question 3

How does Bruce and Young’s model work?

Answer 3

With a series of modules working sequentially and in parallel.

Question 4

In detail, what is Bruce and Young’s model?

Answer 4

Structural encoding stage begins when the brain identifies something that looks like a human face, then a mental representation of the face is produced. Alongside this basic processing takes place to decide if you’re male, female, old, young ect
The face is then compared to the face recognition units which include every face we have stored. If we match the face we feel a sense of recognition
If there’s a match we access the person identity nodes which store personal information about the persons name
We then retrieve the persons name

Question 5

What happens in the structural encoding stage?

Answer 5

A mental representation of the face you are looking at is produced. Alongside this basic processing takes place to decide if the face is male, female, old or young

Question 6

What is the first stage of Bruce and Young’s theory of recognition?

Answer 6

Structural encoding takes place when we recognise something that looks like a human face and a mental representation of that face is produced. Basic processing takes place at the same time to determine if the face is old, young, make or female ect

Question 7

What is the role of the face recognition units?

Answer 7

They hold every face we have ever stored in memory

Question 8

What is the second stage of Bruce and Young’s theory of recognition?

Answer 8

The face is then compared to the face recognition units which store every face we have ever stored in memory. If there’s a match we feel a sense of recognition

Question 9

What is the role of the person identity nodes?

Answer 9

To store personal information about the people of the faces we have stored

Question 10

What is the third stage of Bruce and Young’s theory of recognition?

Answer 10

If there is a match we then access the person identity nodes which are stores of personal identity about the people we have stored faces for

Question 11

What is the fourth stage of Bruce and Young’s theory of recognition?

Answer 11

We can retrieve the persons name

Question 12

What are some of the processing systems which work alongside Bruce and Young’s model?

Answer 12

Expression analysis
Facial speech analysis
Directed visual processing

Question 13

What is expression analysis?

Answer 13

This makes inferences about someone’s emotional state from their facial features

Question 14

What is facial speech analysis?

Answer 14

This used visual information from the face when interpreting speech

Question 15

What is directed visual processing?

Answer 15

This allows recognition of features of the face without necessarily identifying the person i.e if they gave a beard, or are wearing glasses

Question 16

What is the basic principle of Bruce and Young’s theory of face recognition?

Answer 16

That face recognition is different to recognition of other objects and requires specific parts of the brain

Question 17

Who made modifications to the Bruce and young model?

Answer 17

Burton et al

Question 18

What did Burton et al do?

Answer 18

Made modifications to Bruce and Young’s model

Question 19

What modifications did burton et al make to Bruce and Young’s model?

Answer 19

There is no separate store for names
The decision whether or not the face is familiar is made at the person identity nodes instead of the face recognition units
The model has been demonstrated in a computer simulation

Question 20

What studies support Bruce and Young’s theory of face recognition?

Answer 20

Young et al

Young, Hey and Ellis

Question 21

What were Young et als findings?

Answer 21

He found in ex service men who had missile wounds to the back of the head some were poor at familiar face recognition, others were poor at matching unfamiliar faces and some couldn’t recognise facial expressions.

Question 22

What do young et als findings suggest?

Answer 22

It suggests that different systems for different aspects of face recognitions. The ex service mens head injuries varied affecting which parts of recognition they struggled with

Question 23

What is good about young et als findings?

Answer 23

They have good validity a because it is based on genuine cases of brain damage

Question 24

Why does young et als research have good validity?

Answer 24

Because it is based on genuine cases of brain damage

Question 25

What were young, hey and Ellis’ findings?

Answer 25

They asked people with neurological defects to keep a diary of daily problems of face recognition. 1008 incidents were reported, but none involved putting a face go a babe without recalling details about the person. On 190 occasions a participant could remember some details but couldn’t name them

Question 26

How do Young, Hey and Ellis’ findings support Bruce and Young’s theory?

Answer 26

Because it follows the process of the model

Question 27

What is a criticism of Bruce and Young’s theory of face recognition?

Answer 27

The cognitive system in the model isn’t explained very clearly. Bruce and young admit it is a bit of a ‘catch all’ not explain parts of the processing which isn’t accounted for by other parts of the model