These results suggest that the exemplar model cannot explain important aspects of face classification. This finding is explored by using it to explain the CR recognition deficit. Previous theories explaining this deficit have referred to global differences in expertise, while ignoring critical differences in the kinds of cognitions and feature coding priorities associated with SR and CR faces. Data from visual search and perceptual discrimination tasks suggest that the feature coding asymmetry is correlated with CR recognition ability, that it is not related to previously assumed processing differences between CR and SR faces, and that it is possible to observe a paradoxical improvement in discrimination accuracy among CR faces. These findings support a new explanation for the CR recognition deficit based on feature coding differences between CR and SR faces, and appear incompatible with similarity based models of object categories.
Categorical perception occurs in newly learned faces, cross-race faces, and inverted faces.
Results indicate that CP can be observed for unfamiliar faces, both in familiar and unfamiliar groups. In addition, significant CP effects were observed in inverted faces. Finally, half-continua were tested where mid point stimuli became end points. These findings are interpreted to suggest that CP in faces does not reflect face-specific processes, and may instead reflect a more general perceptual learning mechanism.