Decision-making framing in facial image comparison

Unfamiliar face identification is a challenging task, and is often considered to be perceptual in nature. This ignores the contribution of decision-making in face identification. Across three experiments we examined whether face-matching decisions would change depending on the framing of response options. In Experiment 1, participants completed an unfamiliar face matching task with the Same/Different, Same/Not-Same or Same/Proceed-to-Next-Trial response options. In Experiment 2, participants completed the task twice, once with the Same/Different response options and once with the Same/Different, Same/Not-Same or Same/Proceed-to-Next-Trial response options. In Experiment 3, participants completed the task when 50% or 80% of trials were matches, and used the Same/Different or Same/Proceed-to-Next-Trial response options. Whereas we found no evidence that face identification decisions were influenced by the framing of response options, we found evidence of a robust base rate effect. Together these findings suggest that decision making in unfamiliar face identification is a complex and selective process.