Changes in visual field advantage for facial recognition: the development of a general processing strategy.

During the recognition of tachistoscopically presented faces, subjects initially showing a LVF advantage decrease and then increase that advantage; subjects with an initial RVF advantage shift to a LVFA. We examined whether these shifts result from increasing familiarity with specific faces or rather from the development of a more general facial processing strategy. This was accomplished by changing the set of faces presented for recognition during testing. Across trials, the VFA of initially RVF advantaged subjects showed a linear trend, that of LVF advantaged S's a quadratic trend. These trends don't differ from those of subjects tested with one set of faces, suggesting that subjects were learning a general strategy for facial recognition.