A visual and semantic locus to beneficial effects of verbalization on face memory.

We examined the effect of verbally describing a face on face memory as assessed in an old-new recognition task. Verbal facilitation, measured by a difference between verbalization and control conditions, was greater for upright than for inverted faces and greater for unfamiliar than for familiar faces. We propose that generating a verbal description enhances the processing of global visual information that differentiates an individual face from other faces that are encountered and also improves recognition through the association of visually derived semantic information. Verbalization enhances visual and semantic distinctiveness in memory.