Recognition for human faces, monkey faces, and objects was assessed in
both adult humans (Homo sapiens) and monkeys (Macaca mulatta) with a
visual paired-comparison task. The results demonstrated that while bot
h species showed strong novelty preference for objects, human particip
ants showed novelty preference for human faces but not for monkey face
s, and vice versa for the monkeys. This 'species-specific effect' in f
ace recognition is discussed in relation with data on both the 'other-
race effect' observed in humans and the effects of experience or train
ing on face recognition processes in primates. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scien
ce B.V. All rights reserved.