Super-Memorizers Are Not Super-Recognizers

Humans have a natural expertise in recognizing faces. However, the nature of the interaction between this critical visual biological skill and memory is yet unclear. Here, we had the unique opportunity to test two individuals who have had exceptional success in the World Memory Championships, includ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-03, Vol.11 (3), p.e0150972-e0150972
Main Authors: Ramon, Meike, Miellet, Sebastien, Dzieciol, Anna M, Konrad, Boris Nikolai, Dresler, Martin, Caldara, Roberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Associative learning
Associative memory
Biology and Life Sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Discipline
Experimental psychology
Eye Movements
Face
Face recognition (Psychology)
Female
Hippocampus
Humans
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Memory
Pattern recognition
Physiological aspects
Skills
Social Sciences
Visual Perception
Young Adult
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Summary:Humans have a natural expertise in recognizing faces. However, the nature of the interaction between this critical visual biological skill and memory is yet unclear. Here, we had the unique opportunity to test two individuals who have had exceptional success in the World Memory Championships, including several world records in face-name association memory. We designed a range of face processing tasks to determine whether superior/expert face memory skills are associated with distinctive perceptual strategies for processing faces. Superior memorizers excelled at tasks involving associative face-name learning. Nevertheless, they were as impaired as controls in tasks probing the efficiency of the face system: face inversion and the other-race effect. Super memorizers did not show increased hippocampal volumes, and exhibited optimal generic eye movement strategies when they performed complex multi-item face-name associations. Our data show that the visual computations of the face system are not malleable and are robust to acquired expertise involving extensive training of associative memory.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0150972