A correlational study investigating whether semantic knowledge facilitates face identity processing

Abstract

ABSTRACT The ability to recognize faces is a fundamental skill in human social interaction. While much research has focused on the recognition of familiar faces, there is growing interest in understanding the cognitive processes underlying the recognition of unfamiliar faces. Previous studies have suggested that both semantic knowledge and physical features play a role in unfamiliar face recognition, but the nature of their relationship is not well understood. This study examines the relationship between unfamiliar face recognition ability and the encoding abilities of semantic knowledge and physical features for famous faces. Using the Gorilla platform, a large group of participants (N = 66) with a broad age range completed three tasks: a challenging unfamiliar face matching task and Famous People Recognition Tests 1 and 2 to evaluate semantic and physical feature encoding abilities, respectively. Results indicate positive correlations between encoding abilities for both semantic knowledge and physical features of familiar faces with Model Face Matching Task scores. Additionally, the encoding ability for semantic knowledge was found to be positively associated with that of physical features.