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Updated: May 26, 2026

Perceptual and Category Processing of the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis' Dimension of Human Likeness: Some Methodological Issues
Published on: June 3, 2013
Unmasking a shady mirror effect: recognition of normal versus obscured faces
John R Vokey1, William E Hockley
1Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, AB, Canada. vokey@uleth.ca
Abstract:
Hockley, Hemsworth, and Consoli (1999) found that following the study of normal faces, a recognition test of normal faces versus faces wearing sunglasses produced a mirror effect: The sunglasses manipulation decreased hit rates and increased false-alarm rates. The stimuli used by Hockley et al. (1999) consisted of separate poses of models wearing or not wearing sunglasses. In the current experiments, we separately manipulated same versus different depictions of individual faces and whether or not the faces were partially obscured. The results of a simulation and four experiments suggest that the test-based, mirror effect observed by Hockley et al. (1999) is actually two separable effects.
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