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. 2022 Jul;51(7):477-495.
doi: 10.1177/03010066221096987. Epub 2022 May 17.

The pairs training effect in unfamiliar face matching

Kay L Ritchie  1 , Tessa R Flack  1 , Elizabeth A Fuller  1 , Charlotte Cartledge  1 , Robin S S Kramer  1
Affiliations

The pairs training effect in unfamiliar face matching

Kay L Ritchie et al. Perception. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

A wealth of studies have shown that humans are remarkably poor at determining whether two face images show the same person or not (face matching). Given the prevalence of photo-ID, and the fact that people employed to check photo-ID are typically unfamiliar with the person pictured, there is a need to improve unfamiliar face matching accuracy. One method of improvement is to have participants complete the task in a pair, which results in subsequent improvements in the low performer ("the pairs training effect"). Here, we sought to replicate the original finding, to test the longevity of the pairs training effect, and to shed light on the potential underlying mechanisms. In two experiments, we replicated the pairs training effect and showed it is maintained after a delay (Experiment 1). We found no differences between high and low performers in confidence (Experiment 1) or response times (Experiment 2), and the content of the pairs' discussions (Experiment 2) did not explain the results. The pairs training effect in unfamiliar face matching is robust, but the mechanisms underlying the effects remain as yet unexplained.

Keywords: face perception; pairs; training; unfamiliar face matching.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Example match trial stimuli. (Copyright restrictions prevent publication of the images used in the experiment. These images are illustrative of the experimental stimuli and depict someone who did not appear in the experiments but has given permission for the images to be reproduced here).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Accuracy data for the face matching task in Experiment 1, separately for high and low performers as defined by performance at T1. Error bars show the within-subjects standard error (Cousineau, 2005).
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Accuracy data for the face matching task in Experiment 2, separately for high and low performers as defined by performance at T1. Error bars show the within-subjects standard error (Cousineau, 2005).
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Word clouds depicting the content of pairs’ discussions for match and mismatch trials responded to correctly and incorrectly. Larger font size represents more frequent words.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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