Prosopagnosic patients may maintain some ability to recognize familiar face
s, although they remain unaware of this ability. This phenomenon - called c
overt face recognition - was investigated in neurologically intact particip
ants, using priming techniques. Participants were quicker to indicate that
a target-name was familiar when the preceding prime-face belonged to the sa
me person compared with an unrelated familiar person. This was observed bot
h when prime-faces could be recognized overtly and when they were presented
too briefly to be recognized overtly (Exps. 1 and 2). Thus, covert face re
cognition was observed in neurologically intact participants. In Exp. 3, pa
rticipants were quicker to recognize a familiar face when that person's fac
e had been seen previously, but only when it had been recognized overtly on
the first encounter. These results are interpreted within the framework of
an interactive activation model of face recognition.