As part of our regular Colloquium Series, Dr David White of UNSW Sydney will speak on:

Face expertise in the wild

Abstract

People's ability to perceive and identify faces is often regarded as a 'gold-standard' in perceptual expertise. However, when faced with challenging tasks encountered in important applied settings, people often perform very poorly. This is problematic in a variety of forensic, legal and security settings. Our work aims to improve the accuracy of face identification in professional settings by translating theoretical understanding into applied solutions. Comparing the accuracy of trained experts, 'super-recognisers' (people with natural talent in these tasks) and people with impaired ability reveals two main routes to improving accuracy. The first relies on relatively quick and automatic processing of facial identity, and improving this system requires reliable and valid tests of individual differences in real world tasks. The second relies on strategic analysis of facial features, and improving this system requires effective training and mentoring.