A quick look at a photo, super-recognizers are able to recognize the strange face-also from a different perspective and with a different facial expression. Why they can do this is largely unclear. The attempt to train competence has so far been little success. A team led by psychologist James Dunn from the University of New South Wales in Sydney (Australia) has now examined the question in more detail. As the researchers describe in "Psychological Science", there were differences, especially when it comes to imprinting the picture and less when recognizing.
Initially, the team around Dunn 34 facial recognition talents selected based on their results in relevant tests, such as the Cambridge Face Memory Test and the unsw Face Test. For comparison, the psychologists advertised 26 control persons with average skills in the facialized. Both groups should look at a series of portrait photos one after the other on a screen for five seconds, while their eyes were followed using eyeracking. The people depicted were different ages, gender and ethnic origin, and there were excerpts that showed between 12 and 100 percent of the face, as a demo video of the researchers illustrated.
After twelve faces, the test subjects were presented again, but mixed with twelve unknown faces, and they should indicate that they had just seen before. The Super Recognizers managed to recognize the faces better on average, even if only twelve percent of the face could be seen. This contradicts the hypothesis that facial recognition goes back to a particularly holistic capture of the entire face, because the face should have been visible at least once, the psychologists conclude.
And they found even more special features: the super-recognizers focused less on the eye region than the other test subjects, but continued to distribute their gaze over the entire face. They also more often fixed individual regions, so let the gaze rest briefly at one point. This suggests that they could absorb the information faster and thus also process more information, the researchers suspect, referring to similar observations in other studies.
Super Recognizer and facial blind have something in common
But was this a special form of perception that only the super-recognizers master? Or do others do the same – only less?
In order to find out, the research group pursued the eyes of another 42 people with a width of more or less talent recognized in the facility. The observations did not indicate a qualitatively different strategy of the Super Recognizer, they report. On the contrary: at the other end of the spectrum, they also found a tendency to concentrate less on the eyes. A study from the previous year had already shown: also people with prosopagnosis (facial blindness), who are particularly difficult with facial recognition, look less at the eye area. From this, Dunn and his colleagues conclude that the additional information from other parties can compensate for problems and help to help special skills.
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But whether it is decisive at all how exactly someone grabs a face with their eyes is controversial. Some say that the concentration on certain areas of face is the key, but the others think that none of it would indicate a special facial recognition talent. Intelligence and memory apparently do not play a role: Super-Recognizers do not cut off above average in corresponding tests.
