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. 2022 Jun 8;7(1):49.
doi: 10.1186/s41235-022-00402-9.

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

Alejandro J Estudillo  1   2 , Hoo Keat Wong  3
Affiliations

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

Alejandro J Estudillo et al. Cogn Res Princ Implic. .

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Example stimuli depicting identity matches (top row) and identity mismatches (bottom row) in the full view (left column), one-masked face (middle column), and two-mask conditions (right column)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean percentage accuracy across viewing and identity conditions
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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