Optimal Viewing Position in Face Recognition

The existence of an optimal viewing position (OVP) in visual word recognition has been consistently reported. For English words, the best recognition performance is usually obtained when the initial fixation is directed to the left of the word center. This effect has been argued to involve interplay of different variables, including perceptual learning, i.e., people prefer fixating at word beginnings during reading, and hemispheric asymmetry, i.e., fixating at word beginning projects most of the word to the left hemisphere, where language processes are lateralized. Here we examine the OVP in face recognition. Previous research showed that people prefer to fixate the left side of a face when viewing faces, suggesting the OVP in face recognition should be to be left of the center. Nevertheless, face processing has been shown to have right hemisphere lateralization, suggesting the OVP should be to the right of the center in order to project most of the face to the right hemisphere. Our results showed that the best face recognition performance was obtained when the initial fixation was directed to the left of the center. This result suggests that perceptual learning has greater influence on the OVP in face recognition than hemispheric asymmetry.