Catherine J Mondloch
Biographic Data
| ID | 2750302 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Catherine J Mondloch |
| GIVEN NAMES | Catherine J |
| FAMILY NAME | Mondloch |
| SIGNATURE | MONDLOCH C J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Brock University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6238-1238 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Contextual cues do not facilitate spontaneous face recognition
Most studies examining face recognition have used explicit recognition tasks, ignoring our ability to spontaneously recognize familiar faces when they are unexpected. The current study examined spontaneous recognition of a minor and major actor from the TV show Friends , and the extent to which spontaneous recognition is facilitated by contextual cues. In Experiment 1, we presented images of the minor actor in the context of an ongoing face‐ratin…
Ensemble coding of facial identity is robust, but may not contribute to face learning
Stable individual differences in unfamiliar face identification: Evidence from simultaneous and sequential matching tasks
We need to move beyond rating scales, white faces and adult perceivers: Invited Commentary on Sutherland & Young (2022), understanding trait impressions from faces
Sutherland and Young's perspective is a timely and rigorous examination of trait impressions based on facial cues. We propose three strtegies to further advance the field: incorporating natural language processing, including diverse facial stimuli, and re‐interpreting developmental data
What happens to our representation of identity as familiar faces age? Evidence from priming and identity aftereffects
Matching identity in images of unfamiliar faces is error prone, but we can easily recognize highly variable images of familiar faces – even images taken decades apart. Recent theoretical development based on computational modelling can account for how we recognize extremely variable instances of the same identity. We provide complementary behavioural data by examining older adults’ representation of older celebrities who were also famous when you…
The dimensions underlying first impressions of older adult faces are similar, but not identical, for young and older adult perceivers
First impressions based on facial cues have the potential to influence how older adults (OAs), a vulnerable population, are treated by others. The present study used a data-driven approach to examine dimensions underlying first impressions of OAs and whether those dimensions vary by perceiver age. In Experiment 1, young adult (YA) and OA participants provided unconstrained, written descriptions in response to OA faces. From these descriptors, 18 …
Ensemble coding of facial identity is not refined by experience: Evidence from other-race and inverted faces
The ability to recognize identity despite within-person variability in appearance is likely a face-specific skill and shaped by experience. Ensemble coding - the automatic extraction of the average of a stimulus array - has been proposed as a mechanism underlying face learning (allowing one to recognize novel instances of a newly learned face). We investigated whether ensemble encoding, like face learning and recognition, is refined by experience…
Recognizing, discriminating, and labeling emotional expressions in a free-sorting task: A developmental story
Recognizing emotional expressions across different people and discriminating between them are important social skills. We examined their development using a novel free-sorting task in which children (aged 5 to 10) and adults sorted 20 faces (posing sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) into piles such that all faces in each pile were feeling the same. Participants could make as many or few piles (emotion categories) as they liked and then labeled ea…
Evidence for a young adult face bias in accuracy and consensus of age estimates
Adults' face processing may be specialized for the dimensions of young adult faces. For example, young and older adults exhibit increased accuracy in normality judgments and greater agreement in attractiveness ratings for young versus older adult faces. The present study was designed to examine whether there is a similar young adult face bias in facial age estimates. In Experiment 1, we created a face age continuum by morphing an averaged young a…
Finding an unfamiliar face in a line-up: Viewing multiple images of the target is beneficial on target-present trials but costly on target-absent trials
When viewing unfamiliar faces, photographs of the same person often are perceived as belonging to different people and photographs of different people as belonging to the same person. Identity matching of unfamiliar faces is especially challenging when the photographs are of a person whose ethnicity differs from that of the observer. In contrast, matching is trivial when viewing familiar faces, regardless of race. Viewing multiple images of an ow…
The flip side of the other-race coin: They all look different to me
Poorer recognition of other-race faces than own-races faces has been attributed to a problem of discrimination (i.e., telling faces apart). The conclusion that 'they all look the same to me' is based on studies measuring the perception/memory of highly controlled stimuli, typically involving only one or two images of each identity. We hypothesized that such studies underestimate the challenge involved in recognizing other-race faces because in th…
The own-age face recognition bias is task dependent
The own-age bias (OAB) in face recognition (more accurate recognition of own-age than other-age faces) is robust among young adults but not older adults. We investigated the OAB under two different task conditions. In Experiment 1 young and older adults (who reported more recent experience with own than other-age faces) completed a match-to-sample task with young and older adult faces; only young adults showed an OAB. In Experiment 2 young and ol…
Detection of propensity for aggression based on facial structure irrespective of face race
Facial Structure Is a Reliable Cue of Aggressive Behavior
Facial width-to-height ratio is a sexually dimorphic metric that is independent of body size and may have been shaped by sexual selection. We recently showed that this metric is correlated with behavioral aggression in men. In Study 1, observers estimated the propensity for aggression of men photographed displaying neutral facial expressions and for whom a behavioral measure of aggression was obtained. The estimates were correlated strongly with …
Shy Children are Less Sensitive to Some Cues to Facial Recognition
Contact and other-race effects in configural and component processing of faces
Other-race faces are generally recognized more poorly than own-race faces. There has been a long-standing interest in the extent to which differences in contact contribute to this other-race effect (ORE). Here, we examined the effect of contact on two distinct aspects of face memory, memory for configuration and for components, both of which are better for own-race than other-race faces. Configural and component memory were measured using recogni…
The many faces of configural processing
Contact and other-race effects in configural and component processing of faces
Other-race faces are generally recognized more poorly than own-race faces. There has been a long-standing interest in the extent to which differences in contact contribute to this other-race effect (ORE). Here, we examined the effect of contact on two distinct aspects of face memory, memory for configuration and for components, both of which are better for own-race than other-race faces. Configural and component memory were measured using recogni…
The flip side of the other-race coin: They all look different to me
Poorer recognition of other-race faces than own-races faces has been attributed to a problem of discrimination (i.e., telling faces apart). The conclusion that 'they all look the same to me' is based on studies measuring the perception/memory of highly controlled stimuli, typically involving only one or two images of each identity. We hypothesized that such studies underestimate the challenge involved in recognizing other-race faces because in th…
The dimensions underlying first impressions of older adult faces are similar, but not identical, for young and older adult perceivers
First impressions based on facial cues have the potential to influence how older adults (OAs), a vulnerable population, are treated by others. The present study used a data-driven approach to examine dimensions underlying first impressions of OAs and whether those dimensions vary by perceiver age. In Experiment 1, young adult (YA) and OA participants provided unconstrained, written descriptions in response to OA faces. From these descriptors, 18 …
Ensemble coding of facial identity is not refined by experience: Evidence from other-race and inverted faces
The ability to recognize identity despite within-person variability in appearance is likely a face-specific skill and shaped by experience. Ensemble coding - the automatic extraction of the average of a stimulus array - has been proposed as a mechanism underlying face learning (allowing one to recognize novel instances of a newly learned face). We investigated whether ensemble encoding, like face learning and recognition, is refined by experience…
Finding an unfamiliar face in a line-up: Viewing multiple images of the target is beneficial on target-present trials but costly on target-absent trials
When viewing unfamiliar faces, photographs of the same person often are perceived as belonging to different people and photographs of different people as belonging to the same person. Identity matching of unfamiliar faces is especially challenging when the photographs are of a person whose ethnicity differs from that of the observer. In contrast, matching is trivial when viewing familiar faces, regardless of race. Viewing multiple images of an ow…
The own-age face recognition bias is task dependent
The own-age bias (OAB) in face recognition (more accurate recognition of own-age than other-age faces) is robust among young adults but not older adults. We investigated the OAB under two different task conditions. In Experiment 1 young and older adults (who reported more recent experience with own than other-age faces) completed a match-to-sample task with young and older adult faces; only young adults showed an OAB. In Experiment 2 young and ol…
The many faces of configural processing
Facial Structure Is a Reliable Cue of Aggressive Behavior
Facial width-to-height ratio is a sexually dimorphic metric that is independent of body size and may have been shaped by sexual selection. We recently showed that this metric is correlated with behavioral aggression in men. In Study 1, observers estimated the propensity for aggression of men photographed displaying neutral facial expressions and for whom a behavioral measure of aggression was obtained. The estimates were correlated strongly with …
Shy Children are Less Sensitive to Some Cues to Facial Recognition
Contact and other-race effects in configural and component processing of faces
Other-race faces are generally recognized more poorly than own-race faces. There has been a long-standing interest in the extent to which differences in contact contribute to this other-race effect (ORE). Here, we examined the effect of contact on two distinct aspects of face memory, memory for configuration and for components, both of which are better for own-race than other-race faces. Configural and component memory were measured using recogni…
Detection of propensity for aggression based on facial structure irrespective of face race
The own-age face recognition bias is task dependent
The own-age bias (OAB) in face recognition (more accurate recognition of own-age than other-age faces) is robust among young adults but not older adults. We investigated the OAB under two different task conditions. In Experiment 1 young and older adults (who reported more recent experience with own than other-age faces) completed a match-to-sample task with young and older adult faces; only young adults showed an OAB. In Experiment 2 young and ol…
The flip side of the other-race coin: They all look different to me
Poorer recognition of other-race faces than own-races faces has been attributed to a problem of discrimination (i.e., telling faces apart). The conclusion that 'they all look the same to me' is based on studies measuring the perception/memory of highly controlled stimuli, typically involving only one or two images of each identity. We hypothesized that such studies underestimate the challenge involved in recognizing other-race faces because in th…
Finding an unfamiliar face in a line-up: Viewing multiple images of the target is beneficial on target-present trials but costly on target-absent trials
When viewing unfamiliar faces, photographs of the same person often are perceived as belonging to different people and photographs of different people as belonging to the same person. Identity matching of unfamiliar faces is especially challenging when the photographs are of a person whose ethnicity differs from that of the observer. In contrast, matching is trivial when viewing familiar faces, regardless of race. Viewing multiple images of an ow…
Evidence for a young adult face bias in accuracy and consensus of age estimates
Adults' face processing may be specialized for the dimensions of young adult faces. For example, young and older adults exhibit increased accuracy in normality judgments and greater agreement in attractiveness ratings for young versus older adult faces. The present study was designed to examine whether there is a similar young adult face bias in facial age estimates. In Experiment 1, we created a face age continuum by morphing an averaged young a…
Recognizing, discriminating, and labeling emotional expressions in a free-sorting task: A developmental story
Recognizing emotional expressions across different people and discriminating between them are important social skills. We examined their development using a novel free-sorting task in which children (aged 5 to 10) and adults sorted 20 faces (posing sadness, anger, fear, and disgust) into piles such that all faces in each pile were feeling the same. Participants could make as many or few piles (emotion categories) as they liked and then labeled ea…
Ensemble coding of facial identity is not refined by experience: Evidence from other-race and inverted faces
The ability to recognize identity despite within-person variability in appearance is likely a face-specific skill and shaped by experience. Ensemble coding - the automatic extraction of the average of a stimulus array - has been proposed as a mechanism underlying face learning (allowing one to recognize novel instances of a newly learned face). We investigated whether ensemble encoding, like face learning and recognition, is refined by experience…
What happens to our representation of identity as familiar faces age? Evidence from priming and identity aftereffects
Matching identity in images of unfamiliar faces is error prone, but we can easily recognize highly variable images of familiar faces – even images taken decades apart. Recent theoretical development based on computational modelling can account for how we recognize extremely variable instances of the same identity. We provide complementary behavioural data by examining older adults’ representation of older celebrities who were also famous when you…
The dimensions underlying first impressions of older adult faces are similar, but not identical, for young and older adult perceivers
First impressions based on facial cues have the potential to influence how older adults (OAs), a vulnerable population, are treated by others. The present study used a data-driven approach to examine dimensions underlying first impressions of OAs and whether those dimensions vary by perceiver age. In Experiment 1, young adult (YA) and OA participants provided unconstrained, written descriptions in response to OA faces. From these descriptors, 18 …
Stable individual differences in unfamiliar face identification: Evidence from simultaneous and sequential matching tasks
We need to move beyond rating scales, white faces and adult perceivers: Invited Commentary on Sutherland & Young (2022), understanding trait impressions from faces
Sutherland and Young's perspective is a timely and rigorous examination of trait impressions based on facial cues. We propose three strtegies to further advance the field: incorporating natural language processing, including diverse facial stimuli, and re‐interpreting developmental data
Ensemble coding of facial identity is robust, but may not contribute to face learning
Contextual cues do not facilitate spontaneous face recognition
Most studies examining face recognition have used explicit recognition tasks, ignoring our ability to spontaneously recognize familiar faces when they are unexpected. The current study examined spontaneous recognition of a minor and major actor from the TV show Friends , and the extent to which spontaneous recognition is facilitated by contextual cues. In Experiment 1, we presented images of the minor actor in the context of an ongoing face‐ratin…
Psychology (15 works) · Face Recognition and Perception (14 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (13 works) · Cognitive psychology (10 works) · Perception (10 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Face (sociological concept) (7 works) · Face recognition and analysis (7 works) · Artificial Intelligence (5 works)