Super-recognition in development: A case study of an adolescent with extraordinary face recognition skills

Abstract

Face recognition abilities vary widely. While face recognition deficits have been reported in children, it is unclear whether superior face recognition skills can be encountered during development. This paper presents O.B., a 14-year-old female with extraordinary face recognition skills: a "super-recognizer" (SR). O.B. demonstrated exceptional face-processing skills across multiple tasks, with a level of performance that is comparable to adult SRs. Her superior abilities appear to be specific to face identity: She showed an exaggerated face inversion effect and her superior abilities did not extend to object processing or non-identity aspects of face recognition. Finally, an eye-movement task demonstrated that O.B. spent more time than controls examining the nose - a pattern previously reported in adult SRs. O.B. is therefore particularly skilled at extracting and using identity-specific facial cues, indicating that face and object recognition are dissociable during development, and that super recognition can be detected in adolescence.

The limits of super recognition: An other-ethnicity effect in individuals with extraordinary face recognition skills.

“…The latter group of individuals have been used as a theoretical window into the typical face recognition system (e.g. Bennetts, Mole & Bate, 2017;Bobak, Bennetts, Parris, Jansari & Bate, 2016;Ramon et al, 2016;Russell, Chatterjee & Nakayama, 2012), and have spurred substantial real-world interest into the mobilisation of super-recognisers for forensic face recognition tasks. However, the limits of super recognition have not yet been established, and it is unknown whether the same biases and influences that act upon typical face recognition (for reviews see Herlitz & Lovén, 2013;Meissner & Brigham, 2001;Rhodes & Anastasi, 2012) also restrict performance at the top end.…”

Applied screening tests for the detection of superior face recognition

“…At the lower end of the spectrum are those with very poor face recognition skills who may have a condition known as “developmental prosopagnosia” (Bate & Cook, 2012 ; Bennetts, Butcher, Lander, Udale, & Bate, 2015 ; Burns et al, 2017 ; Dalrymple & Palermo, 2016 ; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006 ), whereas those at the top end have an extraordinary ability to recognise faces (Bobak, Pampoulov, & Bate, 2016 ; Russell, Duchaine, & Nakayama, 2009 ). These so-called “super recognisers” (SRs) are of both theoretical and practical importance: while examination of the cognitive and neural underpinnings of this proficiency can inform our theoretical understanding of the typical and impaired face-processing system (Bate & Tree, 2017 ; Bennetts, Mole, & Bate, 2017 ; Bobak, Bennetts, Parris, Jansari, & Bate, 2016 ; Bobak, Parris, Gregory, Bennetts, & Bate, 2017 ; Ramon et al, 2016 ), SRs may also be useful in policing and security settings (Bobak, Dowsett, & Bate, 2016 ; Bobak, Hancock, & Bate, 2016 ; Davis, Lander, Evans, & Jansari, 2016 ; Robertson, Noyes, Dowsett, Jenkins, & Burton, 2016 ). However, most studies have relied on a single laboratory test of face recognition to identify SRs (for a review see Noyes, Phillips, & O'Toole, 2017 ) and the consistency of their skills across a larger variety of more applied face recognition tasks has yet to be examined systematically.…”

The consistency of superior face recognition skills in police officers

“…In the last decade, there has been growing interest in so‐called “super‐recognizers” (SRs): people with an extraordinary ability to recognize faces (Bobak, Hancock, & Bate, ; Robertson, Noyes, Dowsett, Jenkins, & Burton, ; Russell, Duchaine, & Nakayama, ). Although much of the published work examining these individuals has theoretical intentions (e.g., Bate & Tree, ; Bennetts, Mole, & Bate, ; Bobak, Bennetts, Parris, Jansari, & Bate, ; Bobak, Parris, Gregory, Bennetts, & Bate, ; Ramon, Miellet, Dzieciol, Konrad, & Caldara, ; Russell, Chatterjee, & Nakayama, ), there has been increased applied interest in the deployment of SRs in policing and security settings. Yet the published literature lacks any large‐scale investigations into the consistency of superior face recognition skills either within or across tasks, with most studies merely requiring performance at an arbitrary level on a single task for inclusion in an SR sample (see Bate et al, ).…”