i never forget a face

Research on understanding face recognition

I never forget a I never forget a faceface

Never forget a face?

Research: Face recognition skill may vary widely, following a spectrum

Prosopagnosics at one end (no skill) Super-recognizers at other end (easily recognize, even after years) Reason why this is a “new” phenomena? Only recently have we

interacted with such large numbers of people over our lifetime. Research conduced by U.S. National Eye Institute and the U.K.

Economic & Social Research Council

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090519172204.htm


Are you face blind? Research: Emotional information in the face increases neural

activity in area of brain associated with face recognition. Problems in face recognition may lie in cortical part of brain.

Scientists say that emotional stimuli can trigger higher level of arousal and emotion in face, which adds additional information for recognizing faces in prosopagnosics.

Conclusion: Emotional information in face processing important.



The Nose knows

Research: During face recognition, first two places we look at are around the nose, with first fixation being slightly to left of nose.

Two fixations are optimal for face recognition. Second fixation allows for more information from a different

location The nose may be the center of attention (according to

researchers)



The eyes have it

Research: Brain extracts information for face recognition primarily from eyes, then from mouth and nose.

Most useful information is from images of around 30 X 30 pixels

Images of eyes are least “noisy” (more reliable than mouth and nose)



It takes two

Research: The image of our own face can change through shared experiences with other people’s faces

While watching the face of another person being touched as their face was touched (as in a mirror), their ability to recognize their own face was not as consistent.

Later, when asked to recognize picture of own face, they tended to include features of face that they saw earlier.

Conclusion: sharing experience with another person may change own perception, may relate to our self identify, and with those who have appearance-related concerns.



i never forget a face

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