Individual gaze preferences and attentional cues interact in masked and unmasked face recognition

Face processing is characterized by idiosyncratic gaze patterns, whereby certain individuals preferentially look at the eyes, while others look at the mouth. Here, we examined whether idiosyncratic gaze preferences toward the upper or lower face modulate recognition when key features of the faces are occluded (masked). Furthermore, we investigated whether attentional cues to the eyes or mouth facilitate performance differentially as a function of idiosyncratic gaze preferences. Using a separate free-viewing task, we assessed each participant's gaze preference index, indicating whether the participant primarily fixated the lower part of the face (down-lookers) or the upper part (up-lookers). Participants also completed the Glasgow Face Matching Test with masked or unmasked faces, and with attentional cues presented around either the eyes or the mouth. Performance was lower when the mouth was occluded than when it was visible, and this decrease was greater for participants who primarily fixated on the lower face in the separate free-viewing task than for those who fixated on the upper face. Additionally, the eye-cue improved performance under mask conditions. However, this effect diminished as lower face preference increased, suggesting that down-lookers may not overcome their bias to fixate on the obscured region, despite the presence of attentional cues. Altogether, individual gaze preferences modulated recognition when faces were occluded, and predicted the degree to which attentional cues benefited face recognition.