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A Functional Coupling of Brain and Behavior During Social Categorization of Faces
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

A Functional Coupling of Brain and Behavior During Social Categorization of Faces

Hannah Volpert-Esmond and Bruce D. Bartholow
Personality & social psychology bulletin, Vol.47(11), pp.1580-1595
11/01/2021
DOI: 10.1177/0146167220976688
PMCID: 8263806
PMID: 33419384
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/8263806View
Open Access

Abstract

Considerable research has focused on how people derive information about others' social category memberships from their faces. Theoretical models posit that early extraction of task-relevant information from a face should determine the efficiency with which that face is categorized, but evidence supporting this idea has been elusive. Here, we used a novel trial-level data analytic approach to examine the relationship between two event-related potential components-the P2, indexing early attention to category-relevant information, and the P3, indexing stimulus evaluation-and the speed of overt categorization judgments. As predicted, a larger face-elicited P2 on a particular trial was associated with faster overt race or gender categorization of that face. Moreover, this association was mediated by P3 latency, indicating that extraction of more category-relevant information early in processing facilitated stimulus evaluation. These findings support continuous flow models of information processing and the long-theorized functional significance of face-elicited neurophysiological responses for social categorization.
Psychology Psychology, Social Social Sciences

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