Super-recognisers in Action: Evidence from Face-matching and Face Memory Tasks

Abstract

Individuals employed in forensic or security settings are often required to compare faces of ID holders to document photographs, or to recognise the faces of suspects in closed-circuit television footage. It has long been established that both tasks produce a high error rate amongst typical perceivers. This study sought to determine the performance of individuals with exceptionally good face memory ('super-recognisers') on applied facial identity matching and memory tasks. In experiment 1, super-recognisers were significantly better than controls when matching target faces to simultaneously presented line-ups. In experiment 2, super-recognisers were also better at recognising faces from video footage. These findings suggest that super-recognisers are more accurate at face matching and face memory tasks than typical perceivers, and they could be valuable expert employees in national security and forensic settings.