PSYC 300 Research Methods in Psychology Mini-Lab

PSYC 300 Research Methods in Psychology Mini-Lab In the study of face recognition, twenty men and twenty women were shown a line-up of different faces. They were required to use their memory after looking at the line-up to identify if one face was in the line up or not. My hypothesis is that women can recognize faces better than men. Researchers say women may have better genetic programming to recognize faces. Jennifer Steeves, a psychologist who led the study, said: 'There is a small but significant difference in how reliably and how quickly men and women can recognize faces. Women just seem to be more efficient at it than men. (Nahrain, 2010) First each of the men were sat down alone and shown a line up of five other men. The men in the line up were not related to the individual viewing the line up. The men were shown the line up for about five seconds. After the line up was shown, the man was then shown a picture of one individual. After being shown the picture the male, he had to decided whether the individual on the picture was in the line up or not. This was done with each individual ten times. Before each line up there was about a three second break between the next line up. After every decision, it was documented on the data form. The women were next. The women went through the same procedures as the men. Twenty women sat down individually and was shown a line up of five men. The men in the line up were not related to the individual viewing the line up and were the same men that were used in the experiment with the males. The women were shown the line up for about five seconds. After the line up was shown, the women were shown a picture of one individual. After being shown the picture, she had to decided whether that person was in the line up or not. This was done with each individual ten times. There were three intervals between the next line up. .................................................continued............................................