Processing of faces in a think/no-think paradigm using a recognition test with accuracy and response latency measures

Abstract: This study aims at using facial material to see if the material can be remembered and intentionally forgotten through a think/no-think task in which participants are cued to think about some face pair combinations and not think about other face pairs combinations. To do this a think/no-think paradigm is used. An experiment has been conducted in which the participants learned pairs of faces (one male and one female). After this a think/no-think task followed in which only the first face (cue) of the pairs was shown and the subjects were either instructed to remember (think condition) the second face (target) or to suppress it (no-think condition). A third group of face pairs functioned as a baseline and did not appear in the think/no-think task. In the final phase of the experiment the target faces were presented in a recognition test in which half the faces were completely new faces and the other half were old target faces (think, no-think and baseline). The participants’ assignment was to differentiate between the old and the new faces. During the recognition test the response times for the correct answers of the old faces were also measured. The hypothesis of this study was that the subjects would be able to remember more of the think condition faces and less of the no-think condition faces compared to the baseline condition, and that the response times would be faster for the think condition and slower for the no-think condition compared to the baseline condition. No hypothesized effects were found in the accuracy and response times of the recognition test. Surprisingly an effect was found in the accuracy of the recognition test in which the baseline condition faces were better remembered than the think condition faces.