A Shift from Image-Based to Identity-Based Face Recognition is Enhanced by Social Significance but Mediated by Perceptual Experience

Recognizing faces is better for familiar people than unfamiliar people. Interestingly, recognizing specific images of a face shows a reverse effect: people recognize better a specific image of an unfamiliar person than a familiar person. This suggests a representational shift from an imagebased to an identity-based representation when faces become familiar. Does this shift arise from the richer perceptual experience with faces of familiar people, their higher social significance, or a combination of both? Two face recognition studies (N = 173) examined how these factors influence recognition of the person and the specific image. In Study 1, learning five images per unfamiliar person, compared to one, led to better person recognition and worse image recognition, making the unfamiliar people more akin to familiar people. Study 2 replicated this effect and showed that higher social significance enhanced the effect of perceptual experience on shifting from image-based to identity-based representation. Social significance improved person recognition, but only when there was sufficient perceptual experience. We conclude that perceptual experience is crucial for identity-based recognition, and that social significance enhances its effect. In analyses that separately examined sensitivity and response bias, we found that both perceptual experience and social status increased sensitivity—particularly in the person task. Analysis of bias further showed that low-status faces, compared to high-status faces, were more likely to be judged as “not seen before”. Together, our findings demonstrate that face recognition relies on interactions between perceptual and social-cognitive processes.