Memory Distortions of Age: Examining the Effect of Verbal Descriptors on Age Distortion in Face Recognition

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2009
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of age stereotypes, implied by verbal descriptions, on the age estimates and remembering of age-morphed faces. Participants were either presented with middle-aged faces with verbal descriptions that implied a young-age, middle-age, or old-age stereotype, or the middle-aged faces alone. In the explicit condition, participants were asked to make an age estimation of the face. This study tested the hypothesis that verbal descriptions would cause distortions in the recollection of the face as consistent with Huttenlocher's Model (Huttenlocher et al., 2000). This effect was expected to be greater when coupled with an age estimation task. In the recognition phase, participants were presented with the original face and a distracter face that was age-morphed as consistent to the description. Results of the study showed that the perception of the age of middle-age faces was affected by the presence of descriptions, but not by the age estimation task. Memory distortions did occur in faces accompanied by descriptions such that participants made more false recognitions of the incorrect face. The theoretical and practical implications of the significant results were discussed.
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