Male and female faces are only perceived categorically when linked to familiar identities – And when in doubt, he is a male

摘要: Abstract Categorical perception (CP) is a fundamental cognitive process that enables us to sort similar objects in the world into meaningful categories with clear boundaries between them. CP has been found for high-level stimuli like human faces, more precisely, of face identity, expression and ethnicity. For sex however, which represents another important biologically relevant dimension results have equivocal so far. Here, we reinvestigate using newly created control two factors our opinion might influenced earlier studies. Our new are (a) derived from single identities, changes not confounded identity information, (b) “normalized” their degree maleness femaleness, counteract natural variations perceived masculinity femininity faces obstruct evidence categorical perception. Despite careful normalization, did find classical test procedures, unless participants were specifically familiarized identities before testing. These support single-route hypothesis, stating information processed parallel, contrast what was suggested Bruce Young model Besides, interestingly, show consistent bias, after perceptual normalization male–female range morph continua, judge as male rather than female.