Reverse caricatures effects on three-dimensional facial reconstructions

a r t i c l e i n f o Previous research has shown that familiarization with three-dimensional (3D) caricatures can help improve recognition of same-race and other-race faces, a result that may lead to new training tools in security applications. Since 3D facial scans are not generally available, here we sought to determine whether 3D reconstructions from 2D frontal images could be used for the same purpose. Our results suggest that, despite the high level of photographic realism achieved by current 3D facial reconstruction methods, additional research is needed in order to reduce reconstruction errors and capture the distinctive facial traits of an individual. We recognize faces from our own race better than those from another race [1–4]. This other-race effect (ORE) is robust, and has been reproduced in many studies [see 4–6] and across racial groups [6–8]. It is generally agreed that OREs result from the fact that the most appropriate features for discriminating faces are race-dependent [9]. For instance, Africans focus more on the shape and location of the eyes, eyebrows and ears, whereas Caucasians focus more on hair texture, and hair and eye color [10]. Research shows that this ORE may be reduced by drawing attention to the most distinctive feature of a given face. For example, Hills and Lewis [11] showed that OREs could be reduced by familiarizing subjects with own-race faces containing features critical for differentiating other-race faces. At the same time, people have better recollection for visually distinctive faces [12–17], an effect that can be harnessed to create more memorable stimuli. Researchers pursuing this strategy create " caricatures " of normal faces by exaggerating their distinct qualities, and they find that people are more able to recognize these distorted faces than the veridical faces that were used to create them. This perceptual result is known as the caricature effect [18–21]. Additional studies have also demonstrated a reverse-caricature effect, according to which familiarization with caricatures improves the recognition of the veridical face at a later time [e.g., 18–24]. These results suggest ways in which caricatures may be used as training tools in applied face recognition settings (i.e. law enforcement 1). Motivated by this research, our previous work [27] has explored the use of three-dimensional (3D) caricatures to direct attention to critical features of other-race faces. Our experimental results showed that reverse-caricatures reduce OREs in Caucasian participants when viewing Indian faces. Although these results …