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What We See in Unfamiliar Faces: A Response to Rossion

2018; Elsevier BV; Volume: 22; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.tics.2018.03.008

1879-307X

Andrew W. Young, A. Mike Burton,

Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

Rossion [ 1 Rossion B. Humans are visual experts at unfamiliar face recognition. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2018; 22: 471-472 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (34) Google Scholar ] offers a clear summary of reasons why so many researchers have been persuaded that humans have developed expertise for perceiving and recognising face identity that includes the identities of unfamiliar faces. We appreciate that this is an important debate and are grateful for the opportunity further to clarify our views on face expertise. In particular, we emphasise that Young and Burton [ 2 Young A.W. Burton A.M. Are we face experts?. Trends Cogn. Sci. 2018; 22: 100-110 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (125) Google Scholar ] (hereafter Y&B) did not claim that people are somehow blind to the identities of unfamiliar faces. Our point was that recognition of unfamiliar face identity is limited and does not show the full range of characteristics that Y&B identified as criteria for expertise. By contrast, familiar face recognition largely meets these criteria. From this we concluded that, although it is appropriate to say that we are familiar face experts, it is necessary to reconsider claims that human observers are experts in recognising unfamiliar faces. Although we do not think that, as humans, we are experts at recognising their identities, we nonetheless fully appreciate the interest and importance of Rossion’s focus on understanding what we can see in unfamiliar faces.