What makes some people better at recognising faces?

What is it about?

Recognising faces is crucial to social interactions, and also in applied settings such as criminal investigations. Research has shown that there are widespread differences in people’s ability to recognise faces, from people with developmental prosopagnosia that struggle to recognise close friends, to super-recognisers that recognise near-strangers from years ago. What causes this wide range of ability? We tested whether differences in how people process facial features might contribute to ability. The study found that the most important features for identifying someone can change depending on the specific face being looked at. For example, while eyes and ears are generally useful, they aren’t always the best features to rely on for every face. We conducted several experiments and discovered that people who are good at recognizing faces are flexible in which features they focus on. They can quickly identify and use the most helpful features for each face they see. This flexibility helps them be more accurate in matching and identifying faces.

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Photo by Dhiyo Nugraha on Unsplash

Photo by Dhiyo Nugraha on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our research reveals that the ability to recognize faces relies on the flexible use of different facial features, which varies depending on the specific face being identified. This is crucial for improving face recognition accuracy in security and forensic settings. Two significant findings are that: a) the most useful facial features for identification can change from one face to another, and b) individuals who can adapt their focus to the most diagnostic features for each face achieve higher accuracy in face matching tasks. This flexibility can enhance training programs and improve the effectiveness of facial recognition technologies.

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