Recognizing Faces

The idea that most of us are good at recognizing faces permeates everyday thinking and is widely used in the research literature. However, it is a correct characterization only of familiar-face recognition. In contrast, the perception and recognition of unfamiliar faces can be surprisingly error-pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCurrent directions in psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society Vol. 26; no. 3; pp. 212 - 217
Main Authors Young, Andrew W., Burton, A. Mike
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications, Inc 01.06.2017
SAGE Publications
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Face
Perceptions
Recognition
face perception
face recognition
familiar faces
unfamiliar faces
face matching
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Summary:The idea that most of us are good at recognizing faces permeates everyday thinking and is widely used in the research literature. However, it is a correct characterization only of familiar-face recognition. In contrast, the perception and recognition of unfamiliar faces can be surprisingly error-prone, and this has important consequences in many real-life settings. We emphasize the variability in views of faces encountered in everyday life and point out how neglect of this important property has generated some misleading conclusions. Many approaches have treated image variability as unwanted noise, whereas we show how studies that use and explore the implications of image variability can drive substantial theoretical advances.
ISSN:0963-7214
1467-8721
DOI:10.1177/0963721416688114