Influences of categorical processing on cross-category face recognition deficits

The influence of categorisation on recognition memory was explored in the context of two prominent effects in the memory literature: the other-race effect and the other-sex effect. It is proposed that both effects may share similar underlying mechanisms. Consistent with social categorisation perspectives that emphasise the use of individuation and categorisation processes, both the other-race effect and the other-sex effect were modulated as a result of a categorisation manipulation that emphasised either the race category or the sex category. The results lend support to the use of individuation and categorisation processes in both effects confirming the notion that the other-race effect and the other-sex effect seem to share some similar underlying mechanisms. Processes of individuation and categorisation may be representative of a more general memory phenomenon that may be able to account for recognition performance of other major visual categories of faces in addition to the other-race effect and the other-sex effect.