Suboptimal familiar faces exposure and alectrodermal reactions

Abstract

The hypothesis that the suboptimal mere exposure to familiar faces should generate greater electrodermal reactions than the same exposure to unknown faces, is formulated in this study. Such differences, in number, time, and amplitude, should be smaller when stimulus exposure is optimal. The results of two experiments, in which 60 students participated, allowed to confirm this hypothesis. Indeed, in Experiment 1, electrodemal reactions were more numerous, longer, and of greater amplitude when subjects were exposed in a suboptimal manner (50 msec) to familiar faces than to unknown faces. Those effects were also observed with optimal exposure (400 msec), but they were smaller. Experiment 2 showed that although the stimulus recognition level was 82.83% with optimal exposure, this level was only 51.74% when subjects were placed in the suboptimal exposure condition. Taken together these data lead to conclude that implicit recognition is not entirely determined by explicit recognition.