Developmental Improvement and Age-Related Decline in Unfamiliar Face Matching

Face matching and self-insight: A Registered Report investigating individual differences in metacognitive sensitivity, efficiency, and bias

Deciding whether two face photographs depict the same person or not can be a challenging task, and there are substantial individual differences in face matching ability. Far less is known about differences in metacognitive ability; that is, how well people can estimate the quality of their own face matching judgements. The purpose of this Registered Report was to determine the relationship between first-order performance in a face matching task, and three metacognitive measures: metacognitive sensitivity (the information exploited by metacognition), metacognitive efficiency (the quality of metacognitive processing itself), and metacognitive bias (the overall tendency towards high or low confidence). Participants completed a 200-trial unfamiliar face matching task, providing a second-order (metacognitive) confidence rating after each first-order (cognitive) response. Cognitive performance and metacognitive sensitivity showed a substantial positive association (rs = .60), suggesting that they were based on overlapping information, with poorer performers having lower quality information available. Once these differences in the information available to metacognition were accounted for, the quality of metacognitive processing itself (metacognitive efficiency) did not vary systematically with cognitive performance (rs = .00). Moreover, poor performers were not less or more confident overall than good performers, as cognitive performance and metacognitive bias did not correlate significantly (rs = .11). These findings allow us to move beyond consideration of group-level insight and inform regarding individual differences in cognitive and metacognitive abilities.

Ensemble coding of facial identity is robust, but may not contribute to face learning

Ensemble coding - the rapid extraction of a perceptual average - has been proposed as a potential mechanism underlying face learning. We tested this proposal across five pre-registered experiments in which four ambient images of an identity were presented in the study phase. In Experiments 1 and 2a-c, participants were asked whether a test image was in the study array; these experiments examined the robustness of ensemble coding. Experiment 1 replicated ensemble coding in an online sample; participants recognize images from the study array and the average of those images. Experiments 2a-c provide evidence that ensemble coding meets several criteria of a possible learning mechanism: It is robust to changes in head orientation (± 60o), survives a short (30s) delay, and persists when images of two identities are interleaved during the study phase. Experiment 3 examined whether ensemble coding is sufficient for face learning (i.e., facilitates recognition of novel images of a target identity). Each study array comprised four ambient images (variability + average), a single image, or an average of four images (average only). Participants were asked whether a novel test image showed the identity from a study array. Performance was best in the four-image condition, with no difference between the single-image and average-only conditions. We conclude that ensemble coding of facial identity is robust but that the perceptual average per se is not sufficient for face learning.

Stable individual differences in unfamiliar face identification: Evidence from simultaneous and sequential matching tasks

Matching identity in images of unfamiliar faces is difficult: Images of the same person can look different and images of different people can look similar. Recent studies have capitalized on individual differences in the ability to distinguish match (same ID) vs. mismatch (different IDs) face pairs to inform models of face recognition. We addressed two significant gaps in the literature by examining the stability of individual differences in both sensitivity to identity and response bias. In Study 1, 210 participants completed a battery of four tasks in each of two sessions separated by one week. Tasks varied in protocol (same/different, lineup, sorting) and stimulus characteristics (low vs. high within-person variability in appearance). In Study 2, 148 participants completed a battery of three tasks in a single session. Stimuli were presented simultaneously on some trials and sequentially on others, introducing short-term memory demands. Principal components analysis revealed two components that were stable across time and tasks: sensitivity to identity and bias. Analyses of response times suggest that individual differences in bias reflect decision-making processes. We discuss the implications of our findings in applied settings and for models of face recognition.

What happens to our representation of identity as familiar faces age? Evidence from priming and identity aftereffects

Matching identity in images of unfamiliar faces is error prone, but we can easily recognize highly variable images of familiar faces - even images taken decades apart. Recent theoretical development based on computational modelling can account for how we recognize extremely variable instances of the same identity. We provide complementary behavioural data by examining older adults' representation of older celebrities who were also famous when young. In Experiment 1, participants completed a long-lag repetition priming task in which primes and test stimuli were the same age or different ages. In Experiment 2, participants completed an identity after effects task in which the adapting stimulus was an older or young photograph of one celebrity and the test stimulus was a morph between the adapting identity and a different celebrity; the adapting stimulus was the same age as the test stimulus on some trials (e.g., both old) or a different age (e.g., adapter young, test stimulus old). The magnitude of priming and identity after effects were not influenced by whether the prime and adapting stimulus were the same age or different age as the test face. Collectively, our findings suggest that humans have one common mental representation for a familiar face (e.g., Paul McCartney) that incorporates visual changes across decades, rather than multiple age-specific representations. These findings make novel predictions for state-of-the-art algorithms (e.g., Deep Convolutional Neural Networks).

Healthy aging impairs face discrimination ability

Face images enable individual identities to be discriminated from one another. We aimed to quantify age-related changes in different aspects of face identity discrimination. Face discrimination sensitivity was measured with a memory-free "odd-one-out" task. Five age groups (N = 15) of healthy adults with normal vision were tested: 20, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, and 80-89. Sensitivity was measured for full-face images (all features visible), external features (head-shape, hairline), internal features (nose, mouth, eyes, and eyebrows) and closed-contour shapes (control object). Sensitivity to full-faces continuously declined by approximately 13% per decade, after 50 years of age. When age-related differences in visual acuity were controlled, the effect of age on face discrimination sensitivity remained. Sensitivity to face features also deteriorated with age. Although the effect for external features was similar to full-faces, the rate of decline was considerably steeper (approximately 3.7 times) for internal, relative to external, features. In contrast, there was no effect of age on sensitivity to shapes. All age groups demonstrated the same overall pattern of sensitivity to different types of face information. Healthy aging was associated with a continuous decline in sensitivity to both full-faces and face features, although encoding of internal features was disproportionately impaired. This age-related deficit was independent of differences in low-level vision. That sensitivity to shapes was unaffected by age suggests these results cannot be explained by general cognitive decline or lower-level visual deficits. Instead, healthy aging is associated with a specific decline in the mechanisms that underlie face discrimination.

Children's ability to recognize their parent's face improves with age

Adults are experts at recognizing familiar faces across images that incorporate natural within-person variability in appearance (i.e., ambient images). Little is known about children's ability to do so. In the current study, we investigated whether 4- to 7-year-olds (n = 56) could recognize images of their own parent-a person with whom children have had abundant exposure in a variety of different contexts. Children were asked to identify images of their parent that were intermixed with images of other people. We included images of each parent taken both before and after their child was born to manipulate how close the images were to the child's own experience. When viewing before-birth images, 4- and 5-year-olds were less sensitive to identity than were older children; sensitivity did not differ when viewing images taken after the child was born. These findings suggest that with even the most familiar face, 4- and 5-year-olds have difficulty recognizing instances that go beyond their direct experience. We discuss two factors that may contribute to the prolonged development of familiar face recognition.

Face masks versus sunglasses: limited effects of time and individual differences in the ability to judge facial identity and social traits

Some research indicates that face masks impair identification and other judgements such as trustworthiness. However, it is unclear whether those effects have abated over time as individuals adjust to widespread use of masks, or whether performance is related to individual differences in face recognition ability. This study examined the effect of masks and sunglasses on face matching and social judgements (trustworthiness, competence, attractiveness). In Experiment 1, 135 participants across three different time points (June 2020-July 2021) viewed unedited faces and faces with masks, sunglasses, or both. Both masks and sunglasses similarly decreased matching performance. The effect of masks on social judgements varied depending on the judgement and whether the face was depicted with sunglasses. There was no effect of timepoint on any measure, suggesting that the effects of masks have not diminished. In Experiment 2, 12 individuals with developmental prosopagnosia (DP) and 10 super-recognisers (SRs) completed the same tasks. The effect of masks on identity matching was reduced in SRs, whereas the effects of masks and sunglasses for the DP group did not differ from controls. These findings indicate that face masks significantly affect face perception, depending on the availability of other facial information, and are not modified by exposure.

Use of the Oxford face matching test reveals an effect of ageing on face perception but not face memory

Effects of ageing on both face perception and face memory have previously been reported. Previous studies, however, have not controlled for the effects of face perception when assessing face memory, meaning that apparent effects of ageing on face memory may actually be due to effects of ageing on face perception. Here, both face perception and face memory were assessed in a sample of adults ranging in age from 18 to 93, and the effect of age on face memory was assessed after controlling for face perception. Face perception was assessed using both a standard test and the Oxford face matching test (OFMT), deliberately designed to avoid the bias towards younger, neurotypical samples that may be present in other tests. An effect of ageing on face perception was found using both tests, with the unbiased OFMT being more sensitive to the effect of age. Importantly, when controlling for face perception using the OFMT, no effect of age on face memory was found. Indicative scores on the OFMT from a sample of 989 participants are provided, broken down by age and gender.

Individual differences in emotion regulation and face recognition

Face recognition ability is highly variable among neurologically intact populations. Across three experiments, this study examined for the first time associations between individual differences in a range of adaptive versus maladaptive emotion regulation strategies and face recognition. Using an immediate face-memory paradigm, in which observers had to identify a self-paced learned unfamiliar face from a 10-face target-present/ target-absent line-up, Experiment 1 (N = 42) found high levels of expressive suppression (the ongoing efforts to inhibit emotion-expressive behaviors), but not cognitive reappraisal (the cognitive re-evaluation of emotional events to change their emotional consequences), were associated with a lower level of overall face-memory accuracy and higher rates of misidentifications and false positives. Experiment 2 (N = 53) replicated these finding using a range of face-matching tasks, where observers were asked to match pairs of same-race or different-race face images taken on the same day or during different times. Once again, high levels of expressive suppression were associated with a lower level of overall face-matching performance and higher rates of false positives, but cognitive reappraisal did not correlate with any face-matching measure. Finally, Experiment 3 (N = 52) revealed that the higher use of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, especially catastrophizing, was associated with lower levels of overall face-matching performances and higher rates of false positives. All told, the current research provides new evidence concerning the important associations between emotion and cognition.

Emotion processing in depression and anxiety disorders in older adults: systematic review

BACKGROUND

Emotional cognition and effective interpretation of affective information is an important factor in social interactions and everyday functioning, and difficulties in these areas may contribute to aetiology and maintenance of mental health conditions. In younger people with depression and anxiety, research suggests significant alterations in behavioural and brain activation aspects of emotion processing, with a tendency to appraise neutral stimuli as negative and attend preferentially to negative stimuli. However, in ageing, research suggests that emotion processing becomes subject to a 'positivity effect', whereby older people attend more to positive than negative stimuli.

AIMS

This review examines data from studies of emotion processing in Late-Life Depression and Late-Life Anxiety to attempt to understand the significance of emotion processing variations in these conditions, and their interaction with changes in emotion processing that occur with ageing.

METHOD

We conducted a systematic review following PRISMA guidelines. Articles that used an emotion-based processing task, examined older persons with depression or an anxiety disorder and included a healthy control group were included.

RESULTS

In Late-Life Depression, there is little consistent behavioural evidence of impaired emotion processing, but there is evidence of altered brain circuitry during these processes. In Late-Life Anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress disorder, there is evidence of interference with processing of negative or threat-related words.

CONCLUSIONS

How these findings fit with the positivity bias of ageing is not clear. Future research is required in larger groups, further examining the interaction between illness and age and the significance of age at disease onset.

Profiles on the Orientation Discrimination Processing of Human Faces

Face recognition is a crucial subject for public health, as socialization is one of the main characteristics for full citizenship. However, good recognizers would be distinguished, not only by the number of faces they discriminate but also by the number of rejected stimuli as unfamiliar. When it comes to face recognition, it is important to remember that position, to some extent, would not entail a high cognitive cost, unlike other processes in similar areas of the brain. The aim of this paper was to examine participant’s recognition profiles according to face position. For this reason, a recognition task was carried out by employing the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces. Reaction times and accuracy were employed as dependent variables and a cluster analysis was carried out. A total of two profiles were identified in participants’ performance, which differ in position in terms of reaction times but not accuracy. The results can be described as follows: first, it is possible to identify performance profiles in visual recognition of faces that differ in position in terms of reaction times, not accuracy; secondly, results suggest a bias towards the left. At the applied level, this could be of interest with a view to conducting training programs in face recognition.

Development of Holistic Face Processing From Childhood and Adolescence to Young Adulthood in Chinese Individuals

Previous studies have indicated that holistic face processing is important for the development of face perception. The purpose of this study was to verify the development trajectory of holistic processing, from older childhood to young adulthood, using the complete composite paradigm. Participants from three different age groups (children, adolescents, young adults) were recruited for this study. The results showed that all groups demonstrated the composite effect with similar magnitude. Furthermore, face processing performance improved with age. These results, together with previous results, imply it is a race-general phenomenon that holistic face processing is similar among older children, adolescents, and young adults.

The sampling precision of research in five major areas of psychology

After obtaining a sample of published, peer-reviewed articles from journals with high and low impact factors in social, cognitive, neuro-, developmental, and clinical psychology, we used a priori equations recently derived by Trafimow (Educational and Psychological Measurement, 77, 831-854, 2017; Trafimow & MacDonald in Educational and Psychological Measurement, 77, 204-219, 2017) to compute the articles' median levels of precision. Our findings indicate that developmental research performs best with respect to precision, whereas cognitive research performs the worst; however, none of the psychology subfields excelled. In addition, we found important differences in precision between journals in the upper versus lower echelons with respect to impact factors in cognitive, neuro-, and clinical psychology, whereas the difference was dramatically attenuated for social and developmental psychology. Implications are discussed.

Bayesian regression-based developmental norms for the Benton Facial Recognition Test in males and females

Face identity recognition is important for social interaction and is impaired in a range of clinical disorders, including several neurodevelopmental disorders. The Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT; Benton & Van Allen, 1968), a widely used assessment of identity recognition, is the only standardized test of face identity perception, as opposed to face memory, that has been normed on children and adolescents. However, the existing norms for the BFRT are suboptimal, with several ages not represented and no established time limit (which can lead to inflated scores by allowing individuals with prosopagnosia to use feature matching). Here we address these issues with a large normative dataset of children and adolescents (ages 5-17, N = 398) and adults (ages 18-55; N = 120) who completed a time-limited version of the BFRT. Using Bayesian regression, we demonstrate that face identity perception increases asymptotically from childhood through adulthood, and provide continuous norms based on age and sex that can be used to calculate standard scores. We show that our time limit of 16 seconds per item yields scores comparable to the existing norms without time limits from the non-prosopagnostic samples. We also find that females (N = 156) score significantly higher than males (N = 362), supporting the existence of a female superiority effect for face identification. Overall, these results provide more robust norms for the BFRT and promote future research on face identity perception in developmental populations.

Enhancement of face-sensitive ERPs in older adults induced by face recognition training

A common cognitive problem reported by older people is compromised face recognition, which is often paralleled by age-related changes in face-sensitive and memory-related components in event-related brain potentials (ERPs). We developed a new training using photorealistic caricatures based on evidence that caricatures are beneficial for people with compromised face processing. Twenty-four older participants (62-75 yrs, 13 female) completed 12 training sessions (3 per week, 60 min each) and 24 older participants (61-76 yrs, 12 female) acted as controls. Before and after training (or waiting), participants took part in a diagnostic test battery for face processing abilities, and in ERP experiments on face learning and recognition. Although performance improvements during the training provided little evidence for generalization to other face processing tasks, ERPs showed substantial training-related enhancements of face-sensitive ERPs. Specifically, we observed marked increases of the N170, P200 and N250 components, which may indicate training-induced enhancement of face detection and activation of identity-specific representations. Thus, neuronal correlates of face processing are plastic in older age, and can be modulated by caricature training.

Photo ID verification remains challenging despite years of practice

Background

Matching unfamiliar faces to photographic identification (ID) documents occurs across many domains, including financial transactions (e.g., mortgage documents), controlling the purchase of age-restricted goods (e.g., alcohol sales), and airport security. Laboratory research has repeatedly documented the fallibility of this process in novice observers, but little research has assessed individual differences based on occupational expertise (cf. White et al., PLoS One 9:e103510, 2014; White et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282(1814):20151292, 2015). In the present study, over 800 professional notaries (who routinely verify identity prior to witnessing signatures on legal documents), 70 bank tellers, and 35 undergraduate students completed an online unfamiliar face-matching test. In this test, observers made match/nonmatch decisions to 30 face ID pairs (half of which were matches), with no time constraints and no trial-by-trial feedback.

Results

Results showed that all groups performed similarly, although age was negatively correlated with accuracy. Critically, weekly and yearly experience with unfamiliar face matching did not impact performance.

Conclusions

These results suggest that accumulated occupational experience has no bearing on unfamiliar face ID abilities and that cognitive declines associated with aging also manifest in unfamiliar face matching.

Cross-race correlations in the abilities to match unfamiliar faces

The other-race effect in face identification has been documented widely in memory tasks, but it persists also in identity-matching tasks, in which memory contributions are minimized. Whereas this points to a perceptual locus for this effect, it remains unresolved whether matching performance with same- and other-race faces is driven by shared cognitive mechanisms. To examine this question, this study compared Arab and Caucasian observers' ability to match faces of their own race with their ability to match faces of another race using one-to-one (Experiment 1) and one-to-many (Experiment 2) identification tasks. Across both experiments, Arab and Caucasian observers demonstrated reliable other-race effects at a group level. At an individual level, substantial variation in accuracy was found, but performance with same-race and other-race faces correlated consistently and strongly. This indicates that the abilities to match same- and other-race faces share a common cognitive mechanism.

Feature-by-feature comparison and holistic processing in unfamiliar face matching

Identity comparisons of photographs of unfamiliar faces are prone to error but imperative for security settings, such as the verification of face identities at passport control. Therefore, finding techniques to improve face-matching accuracy is an important contemporary research topic. This study investigates whether matching accuracy can be enhanced by verbal instructions that address feature comparisons or holistic processing. Findings demonstrate that feature-by-feature comparison strategy had no effect on face matching. In contrast, verbal instructions focused on holistic processing made face matching faster, but they impaired accuracy. Given the recent evidence for the heredity of face perception and the previously reported small or no improvements of face-matching ability, it seems reasonable to suggest that improving unfamiliar face matching is not an easy task, but it is presumably worthwhile to explore new methods for improvement nonetheless.

Getting to know you: The development of mechanisms underlying face learning

Nearly every study investigating the development of face recognition has focused on the ability to tell people apart using one or two tightly controlled images to represent each identity. Such research ignores the challenge of recognizing the same person despite variability in appearance. Whereas natural variation in appearance makes unfamiliar faces difficult to recognize, by 6 years of age people easily recognize multiple images of familiar faces. Two mechanisms are proposed to underlie the process by which adults become familiar with newly encountered faces. We provide the first examination of the development of these mechanisms during childhood (6-11 years). In Experiment 1, we examined children's (6- to 10-year-olds') and adults' ability to engage in ensemble coding-the ability to rapidly extract an average representation of an identity from several instances. In Experiment 2, we examined children's ability to use within-person variability in appearance to recognize novel instances of a newly encountered identity. We created a child-friendly perceptual matching task, and the number of images to which participants were exposed varied across targets. Although children were less accurate than adults overall in Experiment 2, we found no age-related improvement in either ensemble coding or the ability to benefit from exposure to within-person variability in appearance when learning a new face, suggesting that both abilities are developed by 6 years of age. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding the nature of mechanisms underlying face learning and other developmental processes such as language and music.

Social perception and aging: The relationship between aging and the perception of subtle changes in facial happiness and identity

Previous findings suggest that older adults show impairments in the social perception of faces, including the perception of emotion and facial identity. The majority of this work has tended to examine performance on tasks involving young adult faces and prototypical emotions. While useful, this can influence performance differences between groups due to perceptual biases and limitations on task performance. Here we sought to examine how typical aging is associated with the perception of subtle changes in facial happiness and facial identity in older adult faces. We developed novel tasks that permitted the ability to assess facial happiness, facial identity, and non-social perception (object perception) across similar task parameters. We observe that aging is linked with declines in the ability to make fine-grained judgements in the perception of facial happiness and facial identity (from older adult faces), but not for non-social (object) perception. This pattern of results is discussed in relation to mechanisms that may contribute to declines in facial perceptual processing in older adulthood.

Declines in representational quality and strategic retrieval processes contribute to age-related increases in false recognition

In a Yes/No object recognition memory test with similar lures, older adults typically exhibit elevated rates of false recognition. However, the contributions of impaired retrieval, relative to reduced availability of target details, are difficult to disentangle using such a test. The present investigation sought to decouple these factors by comparing performance on a Yes/No (YN) test to that on a Forced Choice (FC) test, which minimizes demands on strategic retrieval processes, enabling a more direct measure of the availability of object details. Older adults exhibited increased lure false recognition across test formats (Experiment 1), suggesting a decline in the availability of object details contributes to deficits in performance. Manipulating interference by varying the number of objects studied selectively enhanced performance in the FC test, resulting in matched performance across groups, whereas age differences in YN performance persisted (Experiment 2), indicating an additional contribution of impaired strategic retrieval. Consistent with differential sensitivity of test format to strategic retrieval and the quality of stimulus representations among older adults, variability in the quality of object representations, measured using a perceptual discrimination task, was selectively related to FC performance. In contrast, variability in memory control processes, as measured with tests of recall and executive function, was related to performance across test formats. These results suggest that both declines in the availability of object details and impaired retrieval of object details contribute to elevated rates of lure false recognition with age, and highlight the utility of test format for dissociating these factors in memory-impaired populations.

Face Matching Impairment in Developmental Prosopagnosia

Developmental prosopagnosia (DP) is commonly referred to as ‘face blindness’, a term that implies a perceptual basis to the condition. However, DP presents as a deficit in face recognition and is diagnosed using memory-based tasks. Here, we test face identification ability in six people with DP, who are severely impaired on face memory tasks, using tasks that do not rely on memory. First, we compared DP to control participants on a standardized test of unfamiliar face matching using facial images taken on the same day and under standardized studio conditions ( Glasgow Face Matching Test; GFMT). Scores for DP participants did not differ from normative accuracy scores on the GFMT. Second, we tested face matching performance on a test created using images that were sourced from the Internet and so varied substantially due to changes in viewing conditions and in a person's appearance ( Local Heroes Test; LHT). DP participants showed significantly poorer matching accuracy on the LHT than control participants, for both unfamiliar and familiar face matching. Interestingly, this deficit is specific to ‘match’ trials, suggesting that people with DP may have particular difficulty in matching images of the same person that contain natural day-to-day variations in appearance. We discuss these results in the broader context of individual differences in face matching ability.

How does a newly encountered face become familiar? The effect of within-person variability on adults' and children's perception of identity

Adults and children aged 6years and older easily recognize multiple images of a familiar face, but often perceive two images of an unfamiliar face as belonging to different identities. Here we examined the process by which a newly encountered face becomes familiar, defined as accurate recognition of multiple images that capture natural within-person variability in appearance. In Experiment 1 we examined whether exposure to within-person variability in appearance helps children learn a new face. Children aged 6-13years watched a 10-min video of a woman reading a story; she was filmed on a single day (low variability) or over three days, across which her appearance and filming conditions (e.g., camera, lighting) varied (high variability). After familiarization, participants sorted a set of images comprising novel images of the target identity intermixed with distractors. Compared to participants who received no familiarization, children showed evidence of learning only in the high-variability condition, in contrast to adults who showed evidence of learning in both the low- and high-variability conditions. Experiment 2 highlighted the efficiency with which adults learn a new face; their accuracy was comparable across training conditions despite variability in duration (1 vs. 10min) and type (video vs. static images) of training. Collectively, our findings show that exposure to variability leads to the formation of a robust representation of facial identity, consistent with perceptual learning in other domains (e.g., language), and that the development of face learning is protracted throughout childhood. We discuss possible underlying mechanisms.

Face perception in schizophrenia: a specific deficit

INTRODUCTION

Patients with schizophrenia have a large-scaled and severe cognitive impairment. This study examines whether a well-established deficit in face recognition in schizophrenia is a part of this general cognitive impairment or is specific to faces per se.

METHOD

The differential deficit in matching upright faces as compared with two psychometrically matched control tasks (matching inverted faces and matching none-face objects) was assessed in two well-matched samples of schizophrenics (n = 40) and controls (n = 40).

RESULTS

Indicating a generalised cognitive deficit, schizophrenics were impaired in all tasks. Importantly, however, the deficit in matching upright faces was stronger in magnitude (15.6%) than the deficits in matching inverted faces (10.1%) and non-face objects (10.2%). Consistently, schizophrenics showed weaker face inversion effects, indicating a configural processing dysfunction.

CONCLUSION

These results provide compelling evidence for a face-specific deficit in schizophrenia that may be associated with, but separable from, a generalised cognitive impairment.

Matching Faces Against the Clock

This study examined the effect of time pressure on face-matching accuracy. Across two experiments, observers decided whether pairs of faces depict one person or different people. Time pressure was exerted via two additional displays, which were constantly updated to inform observers on whether they were on track to meet or miss a time target. In this paradigm, faces were matched under increasing or decreasing (Experiment 1) and constant time pressure (Experiment 2), which varied from 10 to 2 seconds. In both experiments, time pressure reduced accuracy, but the point at which this declined varied from 8 to 2 seconds. A separate match response bias was found, which developed over the course of the experiments. These results indicate that both time pressure and the repetitive nature of face matching are detrimental to performance.

The 20 item prosopagnosia index (PI20): relationship with the Glasgow face-matching test

The 20 item prosopagnosia index (PI20) was recently developed to identify individuals with developmental prosopagnosia. While the PI20's principal purpose is to aid researchers and clinicians, it was suggested that it may serve as a useful screening tool to identify people with face recognition difficulties in applied settings where face matching is a critical part of their occupation. Although the PI20 has been validated using behavioural measures of face recognition, it has yet to be validated against a measure of face-matching ability that is more representative of applied settings. In this study, the PI20 was therefore administered with the Glasgow face-matching test (GFMT). A strong correlation was observed between PI20 and GFMT scores, providing further validation for the PI20, indicating that it is likely to be of value in applied settings.

Face matching in a long task: enforced rest and desk-switching cannot maintain identification accuracy

In face matching, observers have to decide whether two photographs depict the same person or different people. This task is not only remarkably difficult but accuracy declines further during prolonged testing. The current study investigated whether this decline in long tasks can be eliminated with regular rest-breaks (Experiment 1) or room-switching (Experiment 2). Both experiments replicated the accuracy decline for long face-matching tasks and showed that this could not be eliminated with rest or room-switching. These findings suggest that person identification in applied settings, such as passport control, might be particularly error-prone due to the long and repetitive nature of the task. The experiments also show that it is difficult to counteract these problems.

Aging and emotional expressions: is there a positivity bias during dynamic emotion recognition?

In this study, we investigated whether age-related differences in emotion regulation priorities influence online dynamic emotional facial discrimination. A group of 40 younger and a group of 40 older adults were invited to recognize a positive or negative expression as soon as the expression slowly emerged and subsequently rate it in terms of intensity. Our findings show that older adults recognized happy expressions faster than angry ones, while the direction of emotional expression does not seem to affect younger adults' performance. Furthermore, older adults rated both negative and positive emotional faces as more intense compared to younger controls. This study detects age-related differences with a dynamic online paradigm and suggests that different regulation strategies may shape emotional face recognition.