Scanning Patterns Find Women Have Better Facial Memory Recall Than Men

A new paper suggests women can remember faces better than men,...

Wait a sec -- The article doesn't say that women actually DO remember faces better, it just suggests that they might be able to, based on 1 (one) set of eye tracking tests.

Where is the evidence (you know, like a link to some scientific study) where it is shown women do recognize faces better?

I'm skeptical about this based on my own (admittedly anecdotal) evidence. My wife was awful at remembering faces. Whenever we watched a movie, TV show, or even just saw a commercial, I'd point that so-and-so in the TV show was in movie XYZ and also had a spot in a commercial for MIRAKLEENER detergent.

Like the guy that played Milton in 'Office Space' was also the guy who ran the radio station in 'Oh Brother, Where Art Thou' and was in 'Mad Money'... etc. (Stephen Root).

Or when the lady that plays 'Flo' in the insurance commercials showed up in an episode of 'House'. Bingo, I knew who she was right away.

The worst one was Chancellor Palpatine in 'Star Wars'. I knew immediately he was the evil Emperor. Instant spoiler; not there there was much left to spoil considering the schlocky way George Lucas wrote the sequels and prequels.

My wife seldom recognized faces like that. I've always done that.

Statistically your case proves nothing.

In my relation ship it works the other way around and I still can not tell Prett Pitt apart from Johnny Deep.

Now thats fifty- fifty.

Lets see what the CR4 statictic can come up with!

^{_{PS Spelling mistakes intendend!}}

Using the limited data presented in this article, I conclude that the observed data may indicate a stronger correlation between women and remembering a label applied to a visual stimulus than the correlation between men and remembering a label applied to a visual stimulus. However, no correlation statistic is presented, so I have absolutely no basis of drawing any conclusion at all. It may be that both results are in the noise and neither has any meaning.

Repeat the study but do not apply a label (name) to any of the faces and check for recognition by randomly interspersing unseen faces with previously seen faces and see if either group performs better. (Keep in mind that, with only one test, it is not surprising that one group performs better. The only other option is that both perform equally well.)

Repeat the original study, but associate a label that is not a person's name, such as simple geometric figures or dots in a braille pattern or color names. See if the correlations hold.

The photo provided indicates to me that both men and women tend to look at the same features (eyes, nose, mouth), which might be useful information. For example, if I want to rob a bank, I might be wise to wear sunglasses and cover my mouth and nose with a bandana.

The implication that helping someone to learn to study a face longer may help them remember it better may come as a surprise to high schoolers who don't think you need to study in order to learn the material, but should not surprise anyone else.