HOW WEARING EYEGLASSES AFFECTS FACIAL RECOGNITION

Two studies examine the ability to recognize previously seen persons e mbedded among foils. Subjects in Study I tried to identify 20 persons among 20 foils (an easy task), whereas subjects in Study II tried to i dentify 50 persons among 50 foils (a difficult task). There were three independent variables: the stimulus person's eyeglasses and sex, and the subject's depth of processing. The first two independent variables were varied by photographs of males and females with or without glass es; depth of processing was manipulated by having subjects either judg e traits (deep) or describe appearance (shallow) of the stimulus perso ns during the initial exposure phase. Responses were scored for ''hits ,'' and ''false alarms,'' and these were transformed into d' and beta indices. Generally speaking, eyeglasses hindered facial recognition; d eep processing facilitated the difficult recognition task more than th e easy task; and there was a same-sex advantage in recognition. Analys es of subjects' judgments suggest that glasses lessen attractiveness a nd discriminability.