Olga Kreichman^1,2 (), Limor Brook^1,2, Susan G. Wardle³, Sharon Gilaie-Dotan^1,2; ¹School of Optometry and Vision Science, Bar-Ilan University, ²Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, ³National Institute of Mental Health

Perception of illusory faces (aka “face pareidolia” (FP)) happens when the perception of veridical visual information (e.g. objects) is accompanied by an illusory face-like perceptual experience. We assumed that FP images would be remembered better than face or control images (objects images that do not elicit illusory face percept) since they (i) activate both face and non-face related neural mechanisms, (ii) capture both face-related and object-related attention, and (iii) are very atypical in the visual environment. Here we tested this in 4 experiments where participants (N = 231 young adults) were only instructed to freely view the 160 images (of FP, faces, control objects, and outdoor scenes) and were later given a surprise old-new recognition memory test on 320 images (160 old, new images matched for categories). In contrast to our hypothesis, memory sensitivity for FP images was not consistently higher than for faces, for control objects or for outdoor scenes. However, surprisingly, FP images elicited a reliably more liberal response criterion relative to that of the other visual categories such that participants were more likely to report that FP images had been previously seen even when they were not. Moreover, higher faceness FP images led to more liberal response criterion than lower faceness FP images. This pattern may reflect a general decision bias or may indicate that FP images specifically induce false memories.

Acknowledgements: This study was funded by ISF Individual Research Grants 1485/18 and 1462/23 to SGD, and by CHE Lev-Zion Scholarship to OK