Self-face advantage over familiar and unfamiliar faces: A three-level meta-analytic approach

Abstract

Despite the increasing number of researchers interested in self-face, so far, no study has summarized the behavioral findings that contribute to the debate on self-face advantage. Most studies have focused on neural correlates of the self, although functional uniqueness can also be considered an important criterion for determining whether a stimulus is unique. The present meta-analysis systematically compared reaction time (RT) responses for self-face with other face identities across 54 studies. Different moderator factors were tested: familiarity, identity, head angle, laterality, and culture. We used a three-level meta-analytic approach, which is the best approach to account for the dependency of effect sizes. Results showed a significant (Hedges's g = -0.298) effect size, indicating faster RT for self-face than for other faces in general. Except for culture, none of the moderators employed significantly impacted on the main effect. Regarding culture, results showed that participants from Western cultures tend to respond faster to their own face than to other people's faces, while for participants from Eastern cultures, the effect was not significant. In summary, our results indicate that the self-face benefits from an advantage in terms of reaction time and may be considered a unique stimulus. Implications and limitations of the results are discussed.

Self-face and emotional faces—are they alike?

“…, 2004 ; Brédart et al. , 2006 ; Pannese and Hirsch, 2011 ), and converging lines of evidence have confirmed the special status of self-face processing ( Bortolon and Raffard, 2018 ).…”

“…Finally, in a recent meta-analysis study, RTs for the self-face were compared with RTs for other faces across a large number of studies ( Bortolon and Raffard, 2018 ). The tested moderators included the familiarity (i.e.…”

“…The results of that study illustrate that RTs were substantially shorter in response to the self-face than to other faces in general. However, none of the two aforementioned moderators had an impact on this RT effect ( Bortolon and Raffard, 2018 ). Altogether, the mentioned findings may suggest the involvement of factors other than familiarity in the preferential processing of the self-face.…”

When I Am Old: The Self-Face Recognition Advantage Disappears for Old Self-Faces

“…Caharel et al (2002) used P2 to explore the recognition of the different faces, and they found that a degree of familiarity effect occurred approximately 250 ms after stimulus onset, compatible with the idea that face representations are enriched with extensive visual experience. However, other studies have found that the self-face RT was not different to that of familiar faces, such as friends, siblings, or lovers (for a review, see Bortolon and Raffard, 2018). Bortolon et al (2017) attribute these inconsistencies to the heterogeneity in the methodology and culture difference.…”

Behavioural and ERP evidence of the self-advantage of online self-relevant information

“…Specifically, the visual search task paradigm was adopted in study 1, which aimed to test the cognitive advantage for nicknames by comparing the search speed of nicknames and real names. In addition, some researchers have suggested that familiarity may be a factor influencing individuals' cognitive advantage in information 5,15 ; thus, a famous name (李克强, the current Prime Minister of China) was also included to test and exclude the influence of familiarity. Based on the behavioural findings of study 1, study 2 aimed to further test the cognitive advantage of nicknames at the neurological level with an ERP experiment.…”