Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

What's distinctive about a distinctive face?

V Bruce1, A M Burton, N Dench

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, U.K.

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology
|February 1, 1994
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Antibodies and Inflammation: Fecal Biomarkers of Gut Health in Domestic Ruminants.

Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology·2025
Same author

Two Factors in Face Recognition: Whether You Know the Person's Face and Whether You Share the Person's Race.

Perception·2021
Same author

Are face recognition abilities in humans and sheep really 'comparable'?

Royal Society open science·2019
Same author

How many faces do people know?

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2018
Same author

Endobronchial ultrasound transbronchial needle aspiration at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary: the initial experience.

QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians·2012
Same author

100% accuracy in automatic face recognition.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2008

Facial distinctiveness, or how much a face deviates from average, correlates with how unique it appears. However, this physical deviation shows weaker links to how well faces are remembered.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Facial Recognition
  • Perceptual Science

Background:

  • Facial distinctiveness is a key aspect of social perception.
  • Understanding the relationship between objective facial features and subjective perception is crucial.
  • Previous theories suggest a link between facial typicality/distinctiveness and memory.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the correlation between objective facial deviation from average and rated facial distinctiveness.
  • To examine the relationship between physical facial deviation and memory for faces.
  • To test the Vokey and Read (1992) theory on facial typicality/distinctiveness components.

Main Methods:

  • Objective measurement of facial deviation from an average face.
  • Subjective ratings of facial distinctiveness with hair concealed.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Memory tests (hits and false positives) after initial study of faces.

    • Main Results:

    • Reasonable correlation found between physical facial deviation and rated distinctiveness when hair is concealed.
    • More modest correlations observed between physical deviation and face memorability (correct recall and false recognition).
    • Memory performance (hits and false positives) did not correlate negatively as expected, but both correlated with distinctiveness.

    Conclusions:

    • Objective facial deviation is a significant predictor of perceived distinctiveness.
    • The link between physical facial deviation and memory is weaker than its link to distinctiveness.
    • Findings support the theory of orthogonal components of typicality/distinctiveness: memorability and context-free familiarity.