Recognizing Dynamic Faces in Malaysian Chinese Participants

Abstract

High performance level in face recognition studies does not seem to be replicable in real-life situations possibly because of the artificial nature of laboratory studies. Recognizing faces in natural social situations may be a more challenging task, as it involves constant examination of dynamic facial motions that may alter facial structure vital to the recognition of unfamiliar faces. Because of the incongruences of recognition performance, the current study developed stimuli that closely represent natural social situations to yield results that more accurately reflect observers' performance in real-life settings. Naturalistic stimuli of African, East Asian, and Western Caucasian actors introducing themselves were presented to investigate Malaysian Chinese participants' recognition sensitivity and looking strategies when performing a face recognition task. When perceiving dynamic facial stimuli, participants fixated most on the nose, followed by the mouth then the eyes. Focusing on the nose may have enabled participants to gain a more holistic view of actors' facial and head movements, which proved to be beneficial in recognizing identities. Participants recognized all three races of faces equally well. The current results, which differed from a previous static face recognition study, may be a more accurate reflection of observers' recognition abilities and looking strategies.

Do they ‘look’ different(ly)? Dynamic face recognition in Malaysians: Chinese, Malays and Indians compared

“…However, one prediction, derived from previous studies on Malaysian Chinese (e.g. Tan et al, 2015) and Western Caucasians (e.g. Blais et al, 2008), is that Malaysian Chinese would make more fixations on the nose than on the mouth and the eyes when perceiving dynamic face stimuli.…”

“…Considering the issue of ecological validity, Tan et al (2015) conducted a face recognition study by using dynamic stimuli with facial motions. Compared with what was found in their previous static face recognition study (Tan et al, 2012), the ORB appeared to be less evident.…”

“…Most of the previous eye‐tracking studies on dynamic face processing involved participants of a single race when investigating cross‐race face perception (Tan et al, 2012, 2015), and relatively little work has directly investigated the relative contribution of culture and facial physiognomy in accounting for between‐race differences in face‐scanning pattern. To address this shortfall, in a yes/no face recognition task, we presented naturalistic stimuli that closely represent a typical social situation (i.e.…”

“…Chinese and Malay faces are highly usual for Malaysian Indians), Malaysians' levels of meaningful interracial contact might vary at different life stages, especially during the critical period of enhanced plasticity in childhood (Su et al, 2017; Tham et al, 2018; see also McKone et al, 2019). The perceptual experience account – that the size of the ORE will vary with the amount of interracial contact experienced in everyday life – would predict observation of group differences in looking strategy with the ORB in face memory, reflecting the development of an optimal (intermediate) looking strategy in a top‐down manner for recognizing faces with which they are more familiar (Tan et al, 2015). Second, if the facial physiognomy hypothesis – that bottom‐up facial physiognomic information contributes to face scanning – is supported, participants' gaze patterns would differ according to the race of face.…”

Three‐Dimensional Prediction of the Nose for Facial Approximation in a Thai Population

“…The prediction of the contours of the dorsum and ala of the nose were more prominent (2.5–10.0 mm) in two of the four subjects in their study. Collectively, these findings suggest the need to improve the models for predicting nose morphology because the nose is a structure that is important in facial perception and recognition . It is the part that gains eye focus when perceiving dynamic face stimuli.…”