Repetition priming and recognition of dynamic and static chimeras

Chimeric faces, produced by combining the top half of a familiar face with the bottom half of a different familiar face, are difficult to recognise explicitly. However, given that they contain potentially useful configurational and featural information for face recognition, they might nevertheless produce some activation of representations of their constituent faces. Repetition priming with dynamic and static facial chimeras was used to test this possibility. Whereas half-faces produced significant repetition priming of their familiar counterparts, both types of chimera did not. When analyses were restricted to faces that were recognised during the prime phase, repetition priming was both significant, and equivalent, for chimeras and half-faces. The results suggest that the constituents of a facial chimera must be parsed, and recognised, in order for them to cause repetition priming for their familiar counterparts. Facial motion does not help with the parsing of a facial chimera.