Two face masks are better than one: congruency effects in face matching

Abstract

Although the positive effects of congruency between stimuli are well replicated in face memory paradigms, mixed findings have been found in face matching. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, face masks are now very common during daily life outdoor activities. Thus, the present study aims to further explore congruency effects in matching faces partially occluded by surgical masks. Observers performed a face matching task consisting of pairs of faces presented in full view (i.e., full-view condition), pairs of faces in which only one of the faces had a mask (i.e., one-mask condition), and pairs of faces in which both faces had a mask (i.e., two-mask condition). Although face masks disrupted performance in identity match and identity mismatch trials, in match trials, we found better performance in the two-mask condition compared to the one-mask condition. This finding highlights the importance of congruency between stimuli on face matching when telling faces together.

Holistic and featural processing’s link to face recognition varies by individual and task

“…First, we did not account for congruency effects between face learning and face recognition. Previous research has shown the importance of congruency in face identification 56 – 58 . For example, faces learned with a ski mask are better recognized when they are also presented with a ski mask compared to full-view faces 57 .…”

The role of inversion and face masks on simultaneous and delayed face matching tasks

“…With the increased use of surgical face masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic, several authors have explored how surgical face masks affect face identification [42][43][44][45][46]. For example, Carragher and Hancock [44] adapted the Glasgow Face Matching Test [21] to study the effect of masks on simultaneous face matching (see also [43,45,46]). Despite the simultaneous presentation of both faces, face masks also disrupted performance in face matching.…”