Good luck to Ryan Jenkins who is giving a presentation at the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) at University College London (UCL) on Wednesday 8 January 2019. The title of his talk is "Super-recogniser face recognition ability predicts domain-specific superior performances with voices" and the research is a collaboration with Josh Davis (supervisor), Claire Monks and Stella Tsermentselli (University of Greenwich), Sarah Stevenage and Ashley Symons (University of Southampton), and David Robertson (University of Strathclyde). A paper describing the research is under review in a peer-reviewed journal.

Abstract

This experiment examined whether ‘super-recognition’ generalises across face and voice modalities, and whether face memory and perception test dissociations would transfer to voices. It was hypothesised that participants with exceptional face memory ability (top 2% of the estimated population) (superior-face-recognisers), based on Cambridge Face Memory Test: Enhanced (Russell et al., 2009) scores, would outperform controls at voice memory tests (Glasgow Voice Memory Test; Aglieri et al., 2017, Famous Voice Recognition Test), while exceptional face matching ability participants (superior-face-matchers), based on Glasgow Face Matching Test (Burton et al., 2010) scores, would outperform typical-range ability participants at voice matching (Bangor Voice Matching Test; Mühl et al., 2017). Superior-face-identifiers, exceptional at both, were expected to excel at voice memory and matching. Including typical-range-ability controls, a between-subjects design compared participants (n = 529) on one voice matching and two voice memory tests online. Data were analysed using signal detection theory measures (hits, correct rejections, sensitivity (d/) and response bias (C)) using one-way and two-way mixed ANOVAs. Hypotheses were generally supported, as domain-specific excellent face processing participants tended to outperform typical-range participants. Results offer support for suggestions that underlying cross-modal (voices vs. faces) and cross-domain (memory vs. matching) identity-specific mechanisms may drive superior human-identification processes.