Evidence for limited capacity to recognize more than two faces at once in a crowd

What is it about?

In controlled lab experiments a briefly presented image of a famous face is always processed by participants, even if you they not directly looking at it but concentrating on another task, and even if the display is filled with other information. This seems to suggest that recognizing a face is automatic, and does not need much attention. Such a result is surprising, because we know from previous work that perception of objects can be made difficult if more items are added to the visual scene one is viewing. However, when adding additional faces to the center of a scene, say one or two, then a peripheral famous face is not recognized anymore automatically - it is as if there is a limited number our brain can process within a short time period.

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Why is it important?

This work shows the limits of face processing in a "crowd" - recognizing one face may be automatic, but recognizing a famous face in a crowd may depend on other faces present. I think this finding has importance both for understanding how rhe mind solves tasks such as face processing, but also may have applied consequences, such as informing what people can and cannot process in certain situations or displays (eye witnesses, CCTV, design, etc.)