Human face matching performance is robust to task-irrelevant image changes

AbstractIn response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments around the world now recommend, or require, that their citizens cover the lower half of their face in public. Consequently, many people now wear surgical face masks in public. We investigated whether surgical face masks affected the performance of human observers, and a state-of-the-art face recognition system, on tasks of perceptual face matching. Participants judged whether two simultaneously presented face photographs showed the same person or two different people. We superimposed images of surgical masks over the faces, creating three different mask conditions: control (no masks), mixed (one face wearing a mask), and masked (both faces wearing masks). We found that surgical face masks have a large detrimental effect on human face matching performance, and that the degree of impairment is the same regardless of whether one or both faces in each pair are masked. Surprisingly, this impairment is similar in size for both familiar and unfamiliar faces. When matching masked faces, human observers are biased to reject unfamiliar faces as “mismatches” and to accept familiar faces as “matches”. Finally, the face recognition system showed very high classification accuracy for control and masked stimuli, even though it had not been trained to recognise masked faces. However, accuracy fell markedly when one face was masked and the other was not. Our findings demonstrate that surgical face masks impair the ability of humans, and naïve face recognition systems, to perform perceptual face matching tasks. Identification decisions for masked faces should be treated with caution.

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Surgical face masks impair human face matching performance for familiar and unfamiliar faces

10.31234/osf.io/n9mt5 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Daniel James Carragher ◽

Peter Hancock

Keyword(s):

Face Recognition ◽

Recognition System ◽

Human Face ◽

Face Matching ◽

Face Recognition System ◽

Surgical Masks ◽

The Face ◽

Matching Performance ◽

Recognition Systems ◽

Unfamiliar Faces

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments around the world now recommend, or require, that their citizens cover the lower half of their face in public. Consequently, many people now wear surgical face masks in public. We investigated whether surgical face masks affected the performance of human observers, and a state-of-the-art face recognition system, on tasks of perceptual face matching. Participants judged whether two simultaneously presented face photographs showed the same person or two different people. We superimposed images of surgical masks over the faces, creating three different mask conditions: control (no masks), mixed (one face wearing a mask), and masked (both faces wearing masks). We found that surgical face masks have a large detrimental effect on human face matching performance, and that the degree of impairment is the same regardless of whether one or both faces in each pair are masked. Surprisingly, this impairment is similar in size for both familiar and unfamiliar faces. When matching masked faces, human observers are biased to reject unfamiliar faces as “mismatches” and to accept familiar faces as “matches”. Finally, the face recognition system showed very high classification accuracy for control and masked stimuli, even though it had not been trained to recognise masked faces. However, accuracy fell markedly when one face was masked and the other was not. Our findings demonstrate that surgical face masks impair the ability of humans, and naïve face recognition systems, to perform perceptual face matching tasks. Identification decisions for masked faces should be treated with caution.

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Human face matching performance is predicted by deviation from algorithmic similarity

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/jov.20.11.508 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (11) ◽

pp. 508

Author(s):

Mirta Stantic ◽

Caroline Catmur ◽

Bradley Duchaine ◽

Geoffrey Bird

Keyword(s):

Human Face ◽

Face Matching ◽

Matching Performance

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A grey area: How does image hue affect unfamiliar face matching?

10.31234/osf.io/7g9r8 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Anna K Bobak ◽

Viktoria Roumenova Mileva ◽

Peter Hancock

Keyword(s):

Matching Task ◽

Mixed Condition ◽

Face Matching ◽

Matching Test ◽

Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽

Unfamiliar Face ◽

Matching Performance ◽

Small Decline ◽

Clear Shift

The role of image colour in face identification has received little attention in research despite the importance of identifying people from photographs in identity documents (IDs). Here, in two experiments, we investigated whether colour congruency of two photographs shown side by side affects face matching accuracy. Participants were presented with two images from the Models Face Matching Test (Experiment 1) and a newly devised matching task incorporating female faces (Experiment 2) and asked to decide whether they show the same person, or two different people. The photographs were either both in colour, both in grayscale, or mixed (one in grayscale and one in colour). Participants were more likely to accept a pair of images as a “match”, i.e. same person, in the mixed condition, regardless of whether the identity of the pair was the same or not. This demonstrates a clear shift in bias between “congruent” colour conditions and the mixed trials. In addition, there was a small decline in accuracy in the mixed condition, relative to when the images were presented in colour. Our study provides the first evidence that the hue of document photographs matters for face matching performance. This finding has important implications for the design and regulation of photographic ID worldwide.

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Smiles in face matching: Idiosyncratic information revealed through a smile improves unfamiliar face matching performance

British Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1111/bjop.12318 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 109 (4) ◽

pp. 799-811 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mila Mileva ◽

A. Mike Burton

Keyword(s):

Face Matching ◽

Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽

Unfamiliar Face ◽

Matching Performance

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Redesigning photo-ID to improve unfamiliar face matching performance.

Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied ◽

10.1037/xap0000009 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 20 (2) ◽

pp. 166-173 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

David White ◽

A. Mike Burton ◽

Rob Jenkins ◽

Richard I. Kemp

Keyword(s):

Face Matching ◽

Unfamiliar Face Matching ◽

Unfamiliar Face ◽

Matching Performance

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The worldwide public impact of identifying super-recognisers for police and business

10.31234/osf.io/2ybau ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Josh P Davis

Keyword(s):

Face Processing ◽

Wide Spectrum ◽

Human Face ◽

Short Term ◽

Human Face Recognition ◽

Face Memory ◽

Face Matching ◽

Recognition Ability ◽

Performance Patterns

Super-recognisers occupy the extreme top end of a wide spectrum of human face recognition ability. Although test scores provide evidence of super-recognisers’ quantitative superiority, their abilities may be driven by qualitatively different cognitive or neurological mechanisms. Some super-recognisers scoring exceptionally highly on multiple short-term face memory tests do not achieve superior performances on measures of simultaneous face matching, long term face memory and/or spotting faces in a crowd. Heterogeneous performance patterns have implications for police, security or business aiming to utilise super-recognisers’ superior skills. Drawing on a global participant base (n ≈ 6,000,000), as well as theory and empirical research, this paper describes the background, development, and employment of tests designed to measure four components of superior face processing to assist in recruitment and deployment decisions.

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Individual Differences Between Observers in Face Matching

10.31234/osf.io/yznxf ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sarah Bate ◽

Natalie Mestry ◽

Emma Portch

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Real World ◽

Face Processing ◽

Assessment Tools ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Face Matching ◽

Standard Assessment ◽

Assessment Tasks ◽

Matching Performance ◽

Current Terminology

Increasing evidence suggests vast individual differences in face matching performance in both lay perceivers and relevant professionals. However, the field is hampered by a paucity of psychometric-standard assessment tasks. This chapter reviews the current evidence supporting individual differences in face matching, in light of the reliability of the available tools. The potential underpinnings of these individual differences are reviewed, alongside the overlap between different continua of face-processing skills. Given so-called ‘super-recognisers’ may offer a powerful security tool in relevant settings, the identification and deployment of these individuals are critically discussed. In particular, the reliability and appropriateness of current terminology and assessment tools are considered, together with potential limitations in the performance of even the strongest face matchers. While the current conceptualisation of super-recognition can no doubt advance academic theory, this approach may not adequately identify the best individuals for real-world forensic face matching tasks.

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