The effects of stimulus and subject factors on a face matching task.

An initial experiment revealed that, under very rapid viewing conditions, the usual asymmetry for face recognition occurred only for low-detail facial sketches. Photographs and medium-detail sketches failed to show VF asymmetry. A further experiment revealed that the effect was unlikely to be attributable to discrimination difficulties; this experiment, however, replicated the LVF superiority on low-detail faces only for male subjects. These results are briefly examined in the light of Sergent's theoretical interpretation of hemisphere asymmetry (Sergent, J. Percept. Psychophys. 31, 451-461, 1982). They are also discussed in relation to sex differences in cerebral asymmetry.