How to accurately spot 'super-recognizers' of faces
Many people who excel at memorizing faces are not actually superior at matching unfamiliar faces or spotting them in crowds, meaning standard single-test screenings are insufficient.
Source
Applied screening tests for the detection of superior face recognition
What they did
Researchers tested a group of 200 self-referred individuals who believed they had superior face-recognition abilities, alongside 40 control participants. Participants completed several online tasks: an established 102-point face memory test (CFMT+), a new 90-trial memory test using naturalistic images, a 48-trial pair matching test, and a 32-trial crowd search test using composite images. The researchers analyzed how consistently the self-referred individuals performed across these tests and whether their skills generalized across memory and matching.
What they found
Only 37 of the self-referred individuals performed consistently in the superior range across multiple main tests, even though 89 qualified on the standard face memory test alone. Furthermore, only a single person outperformed controls on the crowd search task, which required spotting an artificial composite face among dozens of people. Performance on trials where a target face was present did not correlate with performance when the target was absent, with only five participants excelling at both.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This study cannot establish whether super-recognition is a single, unified cognitive trait, as it revealed distinct profiles for matching and memory. It also cannot generalize these findings to non-Caucasian faces, since the sample was restricted to Caucasian participants to avoid own-race biases. Finally, because the crowd matching test relied on artificial composite faces rather than real photographs, the low performance may reflect difficulty with the composite generation process itself rather than crowd-searching skills.
Key terms
- super recogniser
- An individual with naturally exceptional abilities in recognizing and distinguishing human faces compared to the general population.
- developmental prosopagnosia
- A lifelong cognitive impairment characterized by a severe inability to recognize faces, despite normal intelligence and sensory processing.
- Cambridge Face Memory Test
- An extended, 102-point standardized laboratory test used to identify individuals with exceptionally high face recognition skills.
- target-absent trials
- Experimental test trials where the previously learned target stimulus is not present, requiring the participant to make a correct rejection.
- facial composite
- An artificial image of a face constructed by an eyewitness or software to resemble a suspect, often used in policing.
- signal detection theory
- A framework used to measure a participant's sensitivity to distinguish actual targets from noise, independent of their response bias.
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Quiz yourself
What is a major limitation of existing real-world and laboratory screening protocols for identifying super recognisers?
Common questions
Can I self-diagnose as a super-recognizer?
No. While 59.5% of the self-referred participants in this study showed superior performance on at least some tests, over a quarter failed to score in the superior range on any test. Objective testing is necessary to confirm super-recognition.
Why did almost no one perform well on the Crowds matching test?
The crowd test used artificial composite faces (EvoFIT) rather than actual photographs. These composites are prone to errors in facial features, making them highly difficult to match to real faces in a crowd of dozens of people.
Does being good at remembering faces mean you are also good at matching them?
Not always. Although the skills are related, the study identified some participants who were only superior at matching faces, and others who were only superior at memorizing them, showing that memory and perception can dissociate.
Why are target-absent trials so important?
In real-world settings like policing, it is just as vital to correctly identify that a suspect is NOT in a lineup as it is to find them. The study showed that people who excel when a target is present do not automatically excel when it is absent.
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