Identifying people with a mask at first sight is a very specific challenge that the coronavirus crisis has demonstrated. A recent study by researchers from Israel and Canada has examined the exact impact of foreign faces and how they disturb facial expressions.
The researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel and York University in Canada revealed how the masks interfere with the activities of daily living.
Their findings have been published in the journal Scientific Reports which states that the ability to identify people (especially those you know against you) has posed a new identification challenge to this pandemic.
“For those who do not always recognize a friend or acquaintance with a mask, you are not alone,” said the researchers Professor Tzvi Ganel from the BGU Department of Psychology and Professor Erez Freud , who earned his PhD at BGU and is now a faculty member at York University in Toronto, Ontario.
In the study, the researchers noted that they have been greatly affected by this condition and its adverse effects that are affecting more and more people. “Faces are one of the most informative visual cues in humans and play a vital role in everyday communication and interaction in society,” the researchers said.
The researchers noted that “the unprecedented effort to reduce Covid-19 emissions has created a new dimension in facial recognition due to mask wear.”
To study the effects of a face mask, the two researchers tested a large group of approximately 500 masked and unexamined faces using a modified version of the Cambridge face memory test. Used to assess facial recognition and comprehension, the test was conducted online.
Results showed that the success rate in identifying someone with a mask decreased by 15%.
This could lead to many mistakes incorrectly identifying people we know, or on the other hand, unknowingly recognizing unfamiliar facial expressions as familiar people, ”said Dr Avidan.
“But these new situations we are dealing with could have a major impact on daily living activities, social interaction and education,” says Ganel.
The research team also found that masks in particular hindered the production of a complete look of faces and led to feature-by-feature processing which is a less accurate strategy. and which takes more time.
“Instead of looking at the whole face, we now need to look at eyes, nose, cheeks, and other visible elements separately to build a complete facial expression – which we would do in the future. immediately, ”the researchers say.
These changes in performance, combined with the change combined with facial processing style, can have a significant impact on the activities of daily living, including social interactions, as well as other situations in which personal interactions, such as education.
It has also been observed that wearing a mask has become the norm across all countries around the world, so future research should be carried out to study the social and psychological effects of wearing masks on human behavior.
This research & study was funded by the Canadian Research Excellence Fund, and the Canadian Natural Science and Engineering Research Council with support from the Isreal Science Foundation and with a view to the application program.