Abstract
Previous research has explored relationships between individual performance in the detection, matching and memory of faces, but under limiting conditions. The current study sought to extend previous findings with a different measure of face detection, and a more challenging face matching task, in combination with an established test of face memory. Experiment 1 tested face detection ability under conditions designed to maximise individual differences in accuracy but did not find evidence for relationships between measures. In addition, in Experiments 2 and 3, which utilised response times as the primary performance measure for face detection, but accuracy for face matching and face memory, no correlations were observed between performance on face detection and the other tasks. However, there was a correlation between accuracy in face matching and face memory, consistent with other research. Together, these experiments provide further evidence for a dissociation between face detection, and face matching and face memory, but suggest that these latter tasks share some common mechanisms.
Highlights
Human face processing consists of a number of distinct but interrelated tasks
The findings suggest that the detection of faces in visual scenes comprises an independent ability, whereas face matching and face memory engage some similar mechanisms
This study identified a correlation between face matching and face memory
Summary
The detection of faces within the visual environment, for example, enables the subsequent identity matching of unfamiliar faces, or the recognition of already-known identities Each of these tasks has been studied in detail (see, e.g., Bindemann & Lewis, 2013; Burton, White, & McNeill, 2010; Johnston & Edmonds, 2009), but little is still known about whether these are conducted by shared or dissociable cognitive mechanisms. Face recognition appears to be remarkably robust to such manipulations (Bindemann, Burton, Leuthold, & Schweinberger, 2008; Hole, George, Eaves, & Rasek, 2002; see Burton, Schweinberger, Jenkins, & Kaufmann, 2015) Such findings imply that, whilst face detection and face recognition involve the same stimulus category, these are dissociable processes. Face recognition deficits in prosopagnosia, for example, have been linked to orienting failures to faces (see, e.g., Dalrymple, Corrow, Yonas, & Duchaine, 2012; Tsao & Livingstone, 2008), raising the alternative possibility that these tasks might engage similar mechanisms
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