Differentiating falsely recognized faces from incompletely remembered faces

This study describes an experimental method for determining whether people who recognize a face containing both some target features and some new features are falsely recognizing the face or whether they are incompletely remembering it. Twenty min. after studying a target face either one time or a third time, 136 participants were instructed to examine six test faces similar to the target and to select two test faces sharing only target features and no unstudied features. The likelihood of selecting two test faces sharing four target features and no incorrect features was significantly greater than chance only for the 67 participants who studied the target three times. Because the two faces selected as containing only target features did not share any unstudied features, they were not falsely recognized; instead, they were indicative of correct but incomplete memory for the thrice-studied target.