Holistic processing is not correlated with face-identification accuracy
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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Holistic Facial Composite Creation and Subsequent Video Line-up Eyewitness Identification Paradigm
Published on: December 24, 2015
Yaroslav Konar1, Patrick J Bennett, Allison B Sekuler
1Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada.
Abstract:
The current study tested the widespread assumption that holistic processing is important for the identification of upright faces. In two experiments, we show that (a) there are large individual differences in the magnitude of the composite face effect and face-identification accuracy and (b) the correlation between the magnitude of the composite face effect and face-identification accuracy is essentially zero. These findings are inconsistent with the claim that holistic processing, as indexed by the composite face effect, significantly influences accuracy in a face-identification task.
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