Psychology Department, University of Maryland Global Campus
Facial Recognition Mini Lab Report
Various research studies have been conducted to evaluate the differences in memory
recollection between men and women. Facial recognition is one of several tests that revealed
that on average, women perform better than men when it comes to recalling faces (Rehnman &
Herlitz, 2007). Recent research has shown women not only outperform men on facial
recognition, but they also are better at recalling female faces than male faces (Rehnman &
Herlitz, 2007). Men do not show this same bias, and typically recall faces the same regardless of
gender. Previous studies tested facial recognition by revealed a photograph of a person to a
participant and testing their ability to recall features from the photo. In order to further examine
the relationship between gender and facial recognition, we constructed a facial recognition test
using multiple photos of males in a line-up. We hypothesize that despite all male photos, women
will be better able to identify whether a new photo was a part of the line-up shown.
Method
Participants
Ten male and ten female participants were randomly selected from a local university to
participate in the study. All participants were aged between 18 and 26 with varying ethnicities.
All participants volunteered and were not given any information about the study.
Materials and Procedure
Each participant was tested in a one-on-one environment with a researcher. Prior to
initiating the first test, each participant was told they would be tested on their ability to recognize