[The comparison between mental image manipulation and distinctive feature scan on recognition memory of faces]

The authors proposed "mental image manipulation of expression" as processing strategy for faces, and investigated whether this strategy facilitates memory for faces or not. In the Experiment, four groups of subjects were assigned to a combination of a task (mental image manipulation of expression or distinctive feature scan) and a retention interval (short-term latency or long-term latency). Each task was followed by an unexpected yes-no recognition test in which identical pictures of the target faces or the same person's expression-changed faces were randomly presented with distractor faces. The mental image manipulation group was better than distinctive feature scan group in long-term storage. This result is considered as a long-term effect of imagery encoding and a configurational encoding by mental image manipulation.