Frequently asked questions
Understanding your face recognition results
Answers to common questions about the UNSW Face Test, super-recognisers, and face recognition ability.
Results
What does my score mean?
High scores suggest that you may have strong face recognition ability. However, identifying a super-recogniser typically requires consistently high performance across multiple tests.
In research settings, classification is based on performance across a battery of tests, not just one.
Super-recognisers
What qualifies someone as a super-recogniser?
Super-recognisers show exceptional performance across multiple face recognition tests, including face memory and face matching tasks.
These individuals represent a small minority of the population and are of particular interest in research and applied settings.
Individual differences
How do I compare to others?
Face recognition ability varies widely. Some people perform extremely well, while others struggle to recognise even familiar faces.
Your score places you within this distribution and provides an objective measure of your ability.
Retaking the test
Can I improve my score?
You can retake the test, but scores from repeat attempts are not used for scientific classification.
Repeated exposure can create practice effects, which artificially inflate performance.
Research
Where can I learn more?
The UNSW Face Test is part of ongoing research into how people recognise faces and why some individuals perform better than others.