Abstract
We investigated the relationships between individual differences in different aspects of face-identity processing, using the Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT) as a measure of unfamiliar face perception, the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) as a measure of new face learning, and the Before They Were Famous task (BTWF) as a measure of familiar face recognition. These measures were integrated into two separate studies examining the relationship between face processing and other tasks. For Study 1 we gathered participants’ subjective ratings of their own face perception abilities. In Study 2 we used additional measures of perceptual and cognitive abilities, and personality factors to place individual differences in a broader context.Performance was significantly correlated across the three face-identity tasks in both studies, suggesting some degree of commonality of underlying mechanisms. For Study 1 the participants’ self-ratings correlated poorly with performance, reaching significance only for judgements of familiar face recognition. In Study 2 there were few associations between face tasks and other measures, with task-level influences seeming to account for the small number of associations present. In general, face tasks correlated with each other, but did not show an overall relation with other perceptual, cognitive or personality tests. Our findings are consistent with the existence of a general face-perception factor, able to account for around 25% of the variance in scores. However, other relatively task-specific influences are also clearly operating.
Highlights
The ability to perceive and recognise face identity is critical to real-life tasks ranging from eye-witness identification to passport control
Our findings were consistent with the existence of a previously hypothesised general face-perception factor, and showed that other influences are clearly operating, highlighting the potential for different aspects of face-perception abilities to associate with more general tasks in quite specific and differentiated ways
In Study 1, we provide the first assessment of individual differences in identity processing across three widely established tests that measure different aspects of face-identity recognition; the Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT) for unfamiliar face matching, Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) for face learning, and the Before They Were Famous task (BTWF) for familiar face recognition
Summary
The ability to perceive and recognise face identity is critical to real-life tasks ranging from eye-witness identification to passport control. McCaffery et al Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (2018) 3:21 that such tasks reveal a wide distribution of ability in the normal population, and that training and experience do not much alter this (Burton, White, & McNeill, 2010; Dowsett & Burton, 2015; White, Kemp, Jenkins, & Burton, 2014; White, Kemp, Jenkins, Matheson, & Burton, 2014). In terms of underlying theory, a key question in understanding face-identity recognition concerns the extent to which it can be considered a unitary process. Ways in which face recognition has already been considered non-unitary involve differences between perceiving and remembering individual face identity, and between the processing of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Since the theoretical paper by Bruce and Young (1986), both distinctions have been incorporated into widely discussed experimental paradigms, standardised tests, and cognitive models
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