How right you are about the special nature of face recognition. Another clue is the difficulty of describing a face in words so that another person can picture it. We use aspects of the face that do not register in consciousness to make the identification. Still another clue is that false faces ‘pop out’ in our vision. Cracks in pavement, clouds in the sky, anything vaguely like a face can pop out as a face. And again, faces are the first things that babies take an interest in. Their eyes will fasten on a plate with a simple happy face (two dots and a line) drawn on it. It is certainly not ordinary every day vision.
How right you are about the special nature of face recognition. Another clue is the difficulty of describing a face in words so that another person can picture it. We use aspects of the face that do not register in consciousness to make the identification. Still another clue is that false faces ‘pop out’ in our vision. Cracks in pavement, clouds in the sky, anything vaguely like a face can pop out as a face. And again, faces are the first things that babies take an interest in. Their eyes will fasten on a plate with a simple happy face (two dots and a line) drawn on it. It is certainly not ordinary every day vision.