Processing Of Configural And Featural Information Affects Face Recognition Ability

Most adults have strong face recognition ability, they recognize faces very fast andvery accurately, and they can find out those person who they know or familiar with inthe tens of thousands of people; however, there is large individual difference inpeople’s face recognition ability. Does processing of configural and featuralinformation affect face recognition ability?In this paper, we used old/new task to measure participants’ face recognition ability;we separated configural and featural information by blurring and scrambling faces,combining delayed matching paradigm to measure performance of processing ofconfigural and featural information.To test processing of configural and featural information affects face recognitionability, we designed two studies in this paper.Study1was correlation research, containing one experiment, experiment1. Wemeasured participants’ performance of configural information, featural information,and face recognition ability, and then analyzed their correlation. The results showedthat,(1) processing of configural information had significant individual difference;(2)processing of featural information had significant individual difference;(3) individualdifference of processing of configural information could predict individual differencein face recognition ability;(4) individual difference of processing of featuralinformation could predict individual difference in face recognition ability.Study2was training research, containing two experiments, experiment2andexperiment3. We used standard―pretest-training-posttest‖paradigm to observe theinfluence of training experience to face recognition.In experiment2, participants were asked to complete individuation training, whichcontained recognition of both configural and featural information. We testedparticipants’ performance of processing of configural information, featuralinformation, and face recognition ability in pretest and posttest, and then measuredtheir difference. The results showed that,(1) performance of processing of configuralinformation got improved after individuation training;(2) performance of processingof featural information got improved after individuation training;(3) participants’ facerecognition ability got improved after individuation training. In experiment3, two groups of participants were asked to complete configuralprocessing training or featural processing training respectively. Also, we testedparticipants’ performance of processing of configural information, featuralinformation, and face recognition ability in pretest and posttest, and then measuredtheir difference. The results showed that,(1) performance of processing of configuraland featural information got improved after configural processing training alone;(2)performance of processing of configural and featural information got improved afterfeatural processing training alone;(3) participants’ face recognition ability gotimproved after configural or featural processing training alone.According to the two studies in this paper, we proposed that both processing ofconfigural and featural information affected face recognition ability, which mainlyreflected in two aspects,1) the higher the performance of processing of configural andfeatural information was, the higher the face recognition ability was.2) people’s facerecognition ability got improved following increase of experience of configural andfeatural information by training.