A study conducted on children ages 6-14 showed that face masks may get in the way of children recognizing and processing faces. Specifically, children experience a greater decrease in their ability to recognize these faces compared to adults. While adults most commonly use a “holistic processing” strategy in which they process the face all at once, children more commonly focus on a specific feature to recognize a masked face. This strategy that is more often used by children is less effective for recognizing faces. Learning how to recognize faces in the early years is important because it will help children become proficient at understanding faces when they are older. The ability of children to process and understand faces is affected by the types of faces to which they are more commonly exposed – a previous study showed that children are better at recognizing the faces of their own race. This research raises many questions regarding the effect of masks on children’s perception and the possibility that children will gain expertise in recognizing masked faces but have trouble with unmasked faces. Future research is necessary to determine the long-term impact of children experiencing most of their practice in facial recognition with masked faces.

Ethel Dvoskin

Research Assistant, UConn KIDS

Article link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/parenting-translator/202202/recent-study-finds-masks-may-impact-face-processing

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