Breakthrough percepts of famous names

• Published in: Cortex Vol. 139; pp. 267 - 281
• Main Authors: Alsufyani, Abdulmajeed, Harris, Kathryn, Zoumpoulaki, Alexia, Filetti, Marco, Bowman, Howard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Italy Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2021
• Subjects: Concealed knowledge test; EEG; Famous names; Fringe-P3; Rapid serial visual presentation; Fringe-P3; Famous names; Concealed knowledge test; Rapid serial visual presentation; EEG
• ISSN: 0010-9452; 1973-8102; 1973-8102
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2021.02.030

Studies have shown that presenting own-name stimuli on the fringe of awareness in Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) generates a P3 component and provides an accurate and countermeasure resistant method for detecting identity deception (Bowman et al., 2013, 2014). The current study investigates how effective this Fringe-P3 method is at detecting recognition of familiar name stimuli with lower salience (i.e., famous names) than own-name stimuli, as well as its accuracy with multi-item stimuli (i.e., first and second name pairs presented sequentially). The results demonstrated a highly significant ERP difference between famous and non-famous names at the group level and a detectable P3 for famous names for 86% of participants at the individual level. This demonstrates that the Fringe-P3 method can be used for detecting name stimuli other than own-names and for multi-item stimuli, thus further supporting the method's potential usefulness in forensic applications such as in detecting recognition of accomplices.