The Importance of Internal and External Features in Face Recognition

Previous studies have shown that familiar face recognition depends more on internal facial features (i.e., eyes, nose, mouth), whereas unfamiliar face recognition depends more on external facial features (i.e., hair, ears, contour). However, very few studies have examined the recognition of faces that vary in both familiarity and race, and the reliance on different facial features, while also using faces that incorporate natural within-person variability. In the current study, we used an online version of the card sorting task to assess recognition of adults (n = 258) for faces that vary in familiarity and race when presented with either the whole face, internal features only, or external features only. Adults better recognized familiar faces than unfamiliar faces in both the whole face and the internal features only conditions, but not in the external features only condition. Reasons why adults did not show an own-race advantage in recognition are explored.