Recognizing Moving Faces: The Relative Contribution of Motion and Perspective View Information

Four experiments are reported that investigated the effects of motion on face recognition by comparing the recognition of moving, multiple static, and single static images of faces. The results of these experiments show that moving faces can be recognized more accurately than static faces, and this appears to be the case even if static cues can be employed to produce accurate recognition rates. The distinction between motion and perspective view information was investigated by manipulating the number and order in which multiple views of the same face were presented. The results obtained in these experiments suggest that the recognition advantage found for moving faces is not simply a product of the different angles of view which are contained in a moving face. Motion therefore appears to be an important source of information in recognizing a face, and probably aids in the derivation of 3-D structure.