Steven Carton¹ (), Arda Erbayav¹, Isabelle Boutet¹; ¹University of Ottawa

Background: When viewing a visual scene, our eyes continually scan and fixate on different points. Memory for familiar face representations is never purely perceptual, as our memory of others is always linked to social context. Previous research has observed that new faces are better learned when participants are instructed to judge the new faces with regard to social information (e.g., how honest does this person look?), as compared to perceptual information (e.g., how round is this person’s face?) (Schwartz & Yovel, 2019; Winograd, 1981). However, it is unknown if differences in patterns of eye movement might explain the social encoding advantage, or whether this advantage persists over a delay. Methods: Participants (N = 36; aged 17–25) learned new faces with social, perceptual, or control (i.e., no judgement) encoding instructions. Following this, two recognition tests were performed — immediately and delayed (24–72 hours). Recognition of target faces was measured in viewpoint and lighting change conditions. Eye movements were tracked and recorded throughout encoding and recognition phases. Results: Socially encoded faces were recognized significantly better than perceptual or control encoding, for same- and different-viewpoint faces, at immediate and delayed recognition. We observed a trend for different encoding strategies having different scan paths. Additionally, as a face became more familiar over encoding trials, fixations to the face significantly decreased. Finally, encoding and recognition eye movement patterns were different, with significantly more fixations to the eyes at recognition. Conclusion: Memory for human faces relies on the social–cognitive processes used during encoding, as demonstrated by our finding that social encoding improves face recognition both immediately and after a delay. Gaze behaviours differ as a function of both the encoding strategy used and the stage of processing, with participants paying more attention to the eyes during retrieval.

Acknowledgements: Funding: Supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant (2022-03998) to Dr. Isabelle Boutet.