Chronotype and Time of Day Effects on a Famous Face Recognition Task with Dynamic Stimuli

Abstract

Chronotype and Time of Day (ToD) can modulate several aspects of cognitive performance. However, there is limited evidence about the effect of these variables on face recognition performance, so the aim of the present study is to investigate this influence. For this, 274 participants (82.5% females; age 18-49 years old, mean = 27.2, SD =1.82) were shown 20 short videoclips, each gradually morphing from a general identity unfamiliar face to a famous face. Participants should press the spacebar to stop each video as soon as they could identify the famous face, and then provide the name or an unequivocal description ofthe person. Analysis of response times (RT) showed that evening-types recognised the faces faster than morning-types. Considering different ToD windows, the effect of chronotype was only significant in the 13h-17h andin the 21h-6h time-windows. Altogether, results suggest an advantage of evening-types on famous face recognition using dynamic stimuli with morning-types, being particularly slower during their non-optimal period.