Face recognition refers to an ability to understand and interpret a human face with the associated information processing in the brain. A human face is a crucial source of information that helps in recognizing the identity of a person as it reveals a great deal of information to a person including the mood and intentions of a person. The ability to facially recognize a person allows an individual to retrieve information about another person and learn how to interact with them appropriately.
Theories and studies explaining face recognition
The Bruce and Young model of 1986 is considered one of the most influential theoretical approaches to face recognition. This model states that facial information stems from comparing the face in view with the stored representation of the face in memory, whereby any similarities and concordance between the face seen and memory stored lead to easy recognition and identification of a person. According to Brice and Young (1986), face recognition is a holistic process involving several independent sub-processes working together. It shows that faces are recognized as a whole configuration rather than analyzing its features separately. The theory comprised of eight components crucial for identifying a face. The elements include facial speech analysis, facial recognition nodes, name generation, structural encoding, directed visual processing, expression analysis, personal identity nodes, and a cognitive system.
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According to this theory, an individual process familiar faces different from unfamiliar faces. For familiar faces, the brain access common information before recognizing information about the identity or a name. The model holds that other information such as name and expression of a person is processed in separate and parallel ways in the brain which is why it is possible to recognize an individual without recalling their names ( Tsao & Livingstone, 2008). Additionally, this model predicts that a human brain processes facial identity different from facial expression since different brain regions take part in face processing. This makes face identification a complex aspect with the recognition of facial expressions involving extensive areas in the brain
Neuropsychological studies have demonstrated a double dissociation between recognizing faces of familiar and unfamiliar faces, supporting an assumption of existing separate routes for processing facial identity and expression ( Atkinson & Adolphs, 2011) . People are better at remembering individuals belonging to the same group than from another group using characteristics such as age, race, and gender. They are better at recognizing faces that are similar to them than they can recognize faces that are different. This is seen with children accurately recognizing faces of children than adult faces while adults being able to accurately acknowledge adult faces than children’s. At the same time, individuals are better placed to recognize the looks from the same race than from different races.
Individuals with a damaged brain can recognize objects but will struggle identifying faces due to the complexities of face recognition. This explains why an individual who impairs their face-recognition network have difficulties perceiving the identity of a person but not the expression ( Anzellotti & Caramazza, 2014) . At the same time, face recognition differs from identification of other objects due to being a holistic process that integrates several aspects of the face. Holistic processing is important since a human face has specific features that may be similar across different people or which may change as a person grows ( Kanwisher & Moscovitch, 2000) . This explains why it is difficult to identify an inverted face than a right-side with the memory accuracy of a face relying on it’s wholly presentation.
Application of theory to practice
This theory of face recognition explains why teachers have an implicit bias towards sure students in a classroom. Some teachers tend to have an unconscious bias towards students tied to their identities, with these assumptions impeding student growth. A human face is one of the most important stimuli, and humans can discriminate faces from other objects within a short time. Face processing is more sensitive to structure, spatial, and relationship displayed between facial features. The structural information such as contrasts and colors attained from the face helps in identifying and recognizing a face.
A teacher can be in a better place to know his students, though all kinds of biases could get in the way. For example, the primacy effect can explain these biases where something that a student does on the first day has more influence on the teacher than the subsequent behavior of the student and will lead to the preferences. An explanation for these differences is the amount of exposure and its role in face recognition whereby spending more time with similar people increases the ability of the brain to recognize an individual ( Rehnman, 2007). At the same time, own-group faces are processed more holistically than individuals from other groups making it easier to remember familiar people.
There are several ways through which teachers can reduce implicit bias with students. One way of avoiding bias is by cultivating an awareness of the prejudice which is natural especially when involving people from unfamiliar social groups. Teachers need to be aware of their challenges with an implicit bias to help them improve their interaction with other students. Secondly, teachers need to increase empathic communication with all students in trying to understand and identify with them. Individuating is an important strategy in helping teachers to break the bias as it allows teachers a chance to interact with students and memorize crucial information about them to avoid biases. Teachers should be better positioned to learn specifics about the students through individuating as a way of reducing implicit biases related to race, ethnicity or gender.
Conclusion
Face recognition is a fundamental skill for social interaction. Individuals tend to look at the face of a person to recognize who they are. However, people vary in their ability to recognize faces ranging from poor face recognition to proper face recognition. Cognitive neuroscience has shown that face recognition depends on several mechanisms and cues which can be used to recognize a person facially. Such signals include the appearance of the face, the sound of the voice, the context in which individuals meet as well as prior knowledge about the current location.
References
Anzellotti, S., & Caramazza, A. (2014). The neural mechanisms for the recognition of face identity in humans. Frontiers in psychology , 5 , 672.
Tsao, D. Y., & Livingstone, M. S. (2008). Mechanisms of face perception. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. , 31 , 411-437.
Atkinson, A. P., & Adolphs, R. (2011). The neuropsychology of face perception: beyond simple dissociations and functional selectivity. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences , 366 (1571), 1726-1738.
Kanwisher, N., & Moscovitch, M. (2000). The cognitive neuroscience of face processing: An introduction. Cognitive Neuropsychology , 17 (1-3), 1-11.
Bruce, V., & Young, A. (1986). Understanding face recognition. British journal of psychology , 77 (3), 305-327.
Rehnman, J. (2007). The role of gender in face recognition (Doctoral dissertation, Psykologiska institutionen).
