Exploring the Motion Advantage: Evaluating the Contribution of Familiarity and Differences in Facial Motion

Abstract

Seeing a face move can improve familiar face recognition, face matching, and learning. More specifically, familiarity with a face may facilitate the learning of an individual's “dynamic facial signature”. In the outlined research we examine the relationship between participant ratings of familiarity, the distinctiveness of motion, the amount of facial motion, and the recognition of familiar moving faces (Experiment 1) as well as the magnitude of the motion advantage (Experiment 2). Significant positive correlations were found between all factors. Findings suggest that faces rated as moving a lot and in a distinctive manner benefited the most from being seen in motion. Additionally findings indicate that facial motion information becomes a more important cue to recognition the more familiar a face is, suggesting that “dynamic facial signatures” continue to be learnt over time and integrated within the face representation. Results are discussed in relation to theoretical explanations of the moving face advantage.