Young Adults’ Close Social Relationships May Influence Face Recognition Abilities.
Open Access
- Author:
- Arrington, Myles
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- September 28, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Suzy Scherf, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Dawn Paula Witherspoon, Committee Member
Kristin Buss (she/her), Program Head/Chair
Lisa Michelle Kopp, Committee Member - Keywords:
- face recognition
face processing
face selectivity
face memory
social network
social support
social conflict
need to belong
social connectedness
social relationships - Abstract:
- Individuals differ in unfamiliar face recognition abilities, both in typically developing and in clinical samples. However, it is unclear why such differences emerge across development. Clinical research indicates that individual differences are related to individuals’ ability to maneuver through their day-to-day social context and form relationships with others. My previous research with typically developing emerging adults indicates that individuals who are poor recognizers have larger networks and more social support, which is in opposition to the clinical literature. To explore this surprising finding further, I developed a project incorporating social connectedness, which incorporates a more qualitative assessment of what a participant’s relationships mean to them. Following the body of research investigating connectedness and the need to belong, I expected that the degree to which participants experience connectedness would be negatively associated with their recognition ability, due to a motivation to find new connections among those with low connectedness. In a sample of 130 young adults ranging from 18 to 28, I found an interaction between connectedness and support such that participants with low levels of connectedness and low support favored face recognition over object. These results indicate that social information processing can be affected by participants’ existing social contexts.