Images of a familiar face do not capture attention under conditions of inattention

Personally and emotionally meaningful information (e.g., one's own name) ha s shown to capture attention. The question ae studied was whether an image of a familiar face draws attention even though it is not expected, and it a ppears when the focus of attention is directed to other stimuli. Observers' task was to compare two faces and report whether they were identical or le ft-right reversed. In addition to these faces, a matrix of 'background' fac es was displayed. On noncritical trials, the matrix consisted of unfamiliar faces. On critical trials tin about every eighth trial) either an observer 's own face or President Ahtisaari's face was displayed. Reaction time was nearly identical on the critical and uncritical trials. On the recognition test about half of the observers were certain that they had seen their own laces in the first part of the experiment. When explicitly asked, however, only three of 26 observers reported that they had recognized their own face s during the comparison task.