Face Recognition

The purpose of this paper is to explain the processes associated with face recognition, identification and classification, the role of encoding and retrieval processes involved with long-term memory and how it affects face recognition, and identify two possible errors that can occur with face recognition.

Face perception is multifaceted, individuals are capable of gathering a continuous stream of social information, ranging from verbal and nonverbal communication. For

humans, faces are the most significant for visual stimuli, a fact that becomes apparent in

social settings--as a species we are constantly, almost obsessively, monitoring each other's faces, paying close attention to subtle details that can give some insight into the emotional state, level of engagement, or object of attention of our associates. Fluency with faces offers great social advantages, allowing one to glean aspects of another's internal thought processes and to predict their behavior. (Leopold, 2010).

Explain the processes associated with face recognition, identification, and classification

Concept generally refer to the abstract notion of what that category represents in one's mind.((Robinson-Riegler, 2008). The recognition of individual faces is in some ways the pinnacle of human visual performance. Because all faces have the same basic configural appearance (for example: two eyes above a nose and mouth, sometimes called the first-order configuration), individuals must be identified by subtle deviations from this prototypic

pattern, sometimes referred to as second-order relational information or configuration .

To process facial identification an individual depend on the process of first-order relational information, the information about the parts of an object and how those parts relate to one another. For face recognition, this would involve an analysis of the person's facial features and the relationship among those features. However, first-order relational information is not enough to recognize faces; simply noticing that two eyes are above the nose, which is above the mouth, may be enough for recognition that something is a face but doesn't allow for recognition of who the face is. To recognize faces, we need second-order relational information. Second-order relational information involves comparing the first-order analysis to facial features of a "typical," or "average," face. This typical face is built up through experience and serves as an implicit standard against which we compare the faces we see. Inverting a face disrupts the encoding of second-order relational information

When we deal with information, we do so in steps. One way to think of this is to picture the process of acquiring, retaining, and using information as an activity called information processing Information comes from the outside world into the sensory registers in the human brain. This input consists of things perceived by our senses. We are not consciously aware of most of the things we perceive; we become aware of them only if we consciously direct our attention to them.

When we do focus our attention on them, they are placed in our working memory. (Education, 2011)

Even when perceivers are presented with stimuli in suboptimal conditions, the face-processing system is still capable of extracting categorical knowledge in a rapid and accurate manner. Third, category activation is sensitive to the typicality of group members. In categorical thinking people identify with groups who they are familiar with.

Analyze the role of encoding and retrieval processes involved with long-term memory and how this affects face recognition.

Early perceptual processes (and their associated products) also appear to play an important contributory role to the generation of categorical thinking. Categorization is a fundamental property of the brain. Categorical thinking streamlines most aspects of person perception, including decision making, memorial functioning, and attention processing

(Cloutier, 2005).

People are skilled with various levels of understanding along with other social agents. From only a few visual cues, a person is able to process detailed impressions of others, identify the sex, emotional status, and identity of conspecifics ; and infer the hidden internal states (example. goals, intentions) that create their plan of purpose.

In social cognition, the two basic processes that serves or promotes a person perception are categorization and individuation . Individuation, in contrast to categorization, the individualistic view other people not as members of distinct social groups but rather as unique entities.

Individuals are guided by two distinct cognitive processes. These two processes operate at the early stages of a person's perception, relevant with the process of object recognition. The individual is capable of making individual judgments about stimuli corresponding to prior perceptual experience.

As part of the face recognition process, a face must activate a face recognition unit a stored representation of that face in memory. If activated, the person is recognized as

familiar. Next, the face recognition unit must activate the person identity node which stores biographical information about the person. If activated, this biographical information becomes available (Robinson-Riegler, 2008).

Prior to the retrieval of information from long-term memory, however, a great deal of social-cognitive processing has already taken place. perceivers have resolved the perceptual puzzle of identifying social agents from available visual cues. This includes, but is not restricted to faces. (Cloutier,

Discuss at least two possible errors that can occur with face recognition, such as misidentification and self-recognition.

Our knowledge of our own face seems inseparable from our general knowledge of self and who we are as individuals, our likes and dislikes, our personal history. Unconscious transference, occurs when a witness fail to identify or distinguish between a target person, for example, falsely identifying an eyewitness may result to imprisonment of an innocent person (Robinson-Riegler, 2008).

As individuals we confront

the world with our faces, from the time of birth to the time of death. The age and gender of a person are printed on their faces. Emotions are expressed in a person's facial expressions. The open and instinctive emotions that Darwin wrote about, as well as the hidden or repressed ones