A reliable self-report measure to assess the broad spectrum of face recognition ability (FRA) from developmental prosopagnosia (DP) to super-recognition would make a valuable contribution to initial screening of large populations. We examined the performance of 96 naive participants and seven super-recognisers (SRs) using a range of face and object processing tasks and a newly developed 20-item questionnaire, the Stirling Face Recognition Scale (SFRS). Overall, our findings suggest that young adults have only moderate insight into their FRA, but those who have been previously informed of their (exceptional) performance, the SRs, estimate their FRA accurately. Principal component analysis of SFRS yielded two components. One loads on questions about low ability and correlates with perceptual tasks, and one loads on questions about high FRA and correlates with memory for faces. We recommend that self-report measures of FRA should be used in addition to behavioural testing, to allow for cross-study comparisons, until new, more reliable instruments of self-report are developed. However, self-report measures should not be solely relied upon to identify highly skilled individuals. Implications of these results for theory and applied practice are discussed.
AnastasiJ. S.RhodesM. G. (2005). An own-age bias in face recognition for children and older adults. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 1043–1047. doi:10.3758/BF03206441
2.
BañosJ. H.LaGoryJ.SawrieS.FaughtE.KnowltonR.PrasadA.… MartinR. C. (2004). Self-report of cognitive abilities in temporal lobe epilepsy: Cognitive, psychosocial, and emotional factors. Epilepsy & Behavior, 5, 575–579. doi:10.1016/j.yebeh.2004.04.010
3.
BartonJ. J.CorrowS. L. (2016). Recognizing and identifying people: A neuropsychological review. Cortex, 75, 132–150.
4.
BateS.BennettsR. J. (2014). The rehabilitation of face recognition impairments: A critical review and future directions. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, 491. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2014.00491
5.
BeaudoinM.DesrichardO. (2011). Are memory self-efficacy and memory performance related? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 211–241. doi:10.1037/a0022106
6.
BentinS.DeGutisJ. M.D’EspositoM.RobertsonL. C. (2007). Too many trees to see the forest: Performance, event-related potential, and functional magnetic resonance imaging manifestations of integrative congenital prosopagnosia. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 132–146. doi:10.1162/jocn.2007.19.1.132
7.
BindemannM.AttardJ.JohnstonR. A. (2014). Perceived ability and actual recognition accuracy for unfamiliar and famous faces. Cogent Psychology, 1, 986903. doi:10.1080/23311908.2014.986903
8.
BobakA. K.BennettsR. J.ParrisB. A.JansariA.BateS. (2016). An in-depth cognitive examination of individuals with superior face recognition skills. Cortex, 82, 48–62. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2016.05.003
9.
BobakA. K.DowsettA. J.BateS. (2016). Solving the border control problem: Evidence of enhanced face matching in individuals with extraordinary face recognition skills. PLoS ONE, 11(2), e0148148. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148148
10.
BobakA. K.HancockP. J. B.BateS. (2016). Super-recognisers in action: Evidence from face-matching and face memory tasks. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 30, 81–91. doi:10.1002/acp.3170
11.
BobakA. K.PampoulovP.BateS. (2016). Detecting superior face recognition skills in a large sample of young British adults. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1378. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01378
12.
BobakA. K.ParrisB. A.GregoryN. J.BennettsR. J.BateS. (2017). Eye-movement strategies in developmental prosopagnosia and “super” face recognition. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 201–217. doi:10.1080/17470218.2016.1161059
13.
BowlesD. C.McKoneE.DawelA.DuchaineB.PalermoR.SchmalzlL.… YovelG. (2009). Diagnosing prosopagnosia: Effects of ageing, sex, and participant–stimulus ethnic match on the Cambridge Face Memory Test and Cambridge Face Perception Test. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 26, 423–455. doi:10.1080/02643290903343149
14.
BurtonA. M.WhiteD.McNeillA. (2010). The Glasgow Face Matching Test. Behavior Research Methods, 42, 286–291. doi:10.3758/BRM.42.1.286
15.
DeGutisJ.CohanS.MercadoR. J.WilmerJ.NakayamaK. (2012). Holistic processing of the mouth but not the eyes in developmental prosopagnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29, 419–446. doi:10.1080/02643294.2012.754745
16.
DennettH. W.McKoneE.TavashmiR.HallA.PidcockM.EdwardsM.DuchaineB. (2012). The Cambridge Car Memory Test: A task matched in format to the Cambridge Face Memory Test, with norms, reliability, sex differences, dissociations from face memory, and expertise effects. Behavior Research Methods, 44, 587–605. doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0160-2
17.
DowsettA. J.BurtonA. M. (2015). Unfamiliar face matching: Pairs out-perform individuals and provide a route to training. British Journal of Psychology, 106, 433–445. doi:10.1111/bjop.12103
18.
DuchaineB.GermineL.NakayamaK. (2007). Family resemblance: Ten family members with prosopagnosia and within-class object agnosia. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 24, 419–430. doi:10.1080/02643290701380491
19.
DuchaineB.NakayamaK. (2006). The Cambridge Face Memory Test: Results for neurologically intact individuals and an investigation of its validity using inverted face stimuli and prosopagnosic participants. Neuropsychologia, 44, 576–585. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2005.07.001
20.
GrayK. L. H.BirdG.CookR. (2017). Robust associations between the 20-item prosopagnosia index and the Cambridge Face Memory Test in the general population. Royal Society Open Science, 4(3), 160923. doi:10.1098/rsos.160923
21.
GrueterM.GrueterT.BellV.HorstJ.LaskowskiW.SperlingK.… KennerknechtI. (2007). Hereditary prosopagnosia: The first case series. Cortex, 43, 734–749. doi:10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70502-1
22.
HaanE. H. F. D. (1999). A familial factor in the development of face recognition deficits. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 21, 312–315. doi:10.1076/jcen.21.3.312.917
23.
JonesR. D.TranelD. (2001). Severe developmental prosopagnosia in a child with superior intellect. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 23, 265–273. doi:10.1076/jcen.23.3.265.1183
24.
LivingstonL. A.ShahP. (2017). People with and without prosopagnosia have insight into their face recognition ability. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/17470218.2017.1310911
25.
MasonL. (2003). High school students’ beliefs about maths, mathematical problem solving, and their achievement in maths: A cross-sectional study. Educational Psychology, 23, 73–85. doi:10.1080/01443410303216
26.
McGuginR. W.RichlerJ. J.HerzmannG.SpeegleM.GauthierI. (2012). The Vanderbilt Expertise Test reveals domain-general and domain-specific sex effects in object recognition. Vision research, 69, 10–22.
27.
MegreyaA. M.BurtonA. M. (2006). Unfamiliar faces are not faces: Evidence from a matching task. Memory & cognition, 34, 865–876.
28.
MeissnerC. A.BrighamJ. C. (2001). Thirty years of investigating the own-race bias in memory for faces: A meta-analytic review. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 7, 3.
29.
PalermoR.RossionB.RhodesG.LaguesseR.TezT.HallB.… McKoneE. (2017). Do people have insight into their face recognition abilities?The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 218–233. doi:10.1080/17470218.2016.1161058
30.
PaulhusD.LysyD.YikM. (1998). Self-report measures of intelligence: Are they useful as proxy IQ tests?Journal of Personality, 66, 525–554. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.00023
RobertsonD. J.NoyesE.DowsettA. J.JenkinsR.BurtonA. M. (2016). Face recognition by metropolitan police super-recognisers. PLoS ONE, 11(2), e0150036. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0150036
34.
RussellR.ChatterjeeG.NakayamaK. (2012). Developmental prosopagnosia and super-recognition: No special role for surface reflectance processing. Neuropsychologia, 50, 334–340. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.12.004
35.
RussellR.DuchaineB.NakayamaK. (2009). Super-recognizers: People with extraordinary face recognition ability. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16, 252–257. doi:10.3758/PBR.16.2.252
36.
ShahP.SowdenS.GauleA.CatmurC.BirdG. (2015). The 20 item prosopagnosia index (PI20): Relationship with the Glasgow face-matching test. Royal Society Open Science, 2(11), 150305. doi:10.1098/rsos.150305
37.
SusiloT.GermineL.DuchaineB. (2013). Face recognition ability matures late: Evidence from individual differences in young adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 39, 1212–1217. doi:10.1037/a0033469
38.
TreeJ. J. (2011). Mental imagery in congenital prosopagnosia: A reply to Grüter et al. Cortex, 47, 514–518. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2010.11.005
39.
TreeJ. J.WilkieJ. (2010). Face and object imagery in congenital prosopagnosia: A case series. Cortex, 46, 1189–1198. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2010.03.005
40.
TuranoM. T.ViggianoM. P. (2017). The relationship between face recognition ability and socioemotional functioning throughout adulthood. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 24, 613–630. doi:10.1080/13825585.2016.1244247
41.
VenturaP.LivingstonL. A.ShahP. (2018). Adults have moderate-to-good insight into their face recognition ability: Further validation of the 20-item prosopagnosia index (PI20) in a Portuguese sample. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Advance online publication.
42.
VerhallenR. J.BostenJ. M.GoodbournP. T.Lawrance-OwenA. J.BargaryG.MollonJ. D. (2017). General and specific factors in the processing of faces. Vision Research, 141, 217–227. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2016.12.014
43.
WhiteD.KempR. I.JenkinsR.MathesonM.BurtonA. M. (2014). Passport Officers’ errors in face matching. PLoS ONE, 9(8), e103510. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0103510
44.
WhiteD.NorellK.PhillipsP. J.O’TooleA. J. (2017). Human factors in forensic face identification. In Handbook of biometrics for forensic science (pp. 195–218). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-50673-9_9
45.
WhiteD.PhillipsP. J.HahnC. A.HillM.O’TooleA. J. (2015). Perceptual expertise in forensic facial image comparison. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282(1814), 20151292. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.1292
46.
WhiteD.RivoltaD.BurtonA. M.Al-JanabiS.PalermoR. (2017). Face matching impairment in developmental prosopagnosia. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 287–297. doi:10.1080/17470218.2016.1173076
47.
ZellE.KrizanZ. (2014). Do people have insight into their abilities? A metasynthesis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9, 111–125. doi:10.1177/1745691613518075
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
