Comparisons between human and computer recognition of faces

This paper reviews characteristics of human face recognition that should be reflected in any psychologically plausible computational model of face recognition. We then summarise recent results which compare aspects of human face perception and memory with the performance of two computer models which each claim some degree of biological plausibility. We show how the performance of each is correlated with human performance on the same images, but that each explains rather different aspects of human performance with these faces. We conclude with a discussion of the coding of image sequences by humans and computers.