Super-Memorizers Are Not Super-Recognizers

Humans have a natural expertise in recognizing faces. However, the nature of the interaction between this critical visual biological skill and memory is yet unclear. Here, we had the unique opportunity to test two individuals who have had exceptional success in the World Memory Championships, including several world records in face-name association memory. We designed a range of face processing tasks to determine whether superior/expert face memory skills are associated with distinctive perceptual strategies for processing faces. Superior memorizers excelled at tasks involving associative face-name learning. Nevertheless, they were as impaired as controls in tasks probing the efficiency of the face system: face inversion and the other-race effect. Super memorizers did not show increased hippocampal volumes, and exhibited optimal generic eye movement strategies when they performed complex multi-item face-name associations. Our data show that the visual computations of the face system are not malleable and are robust to acquired expertise involving extensive training of associative memory.人类在面孔识别领域具备天生的专长。然而，这一至关重要的视觉生物学技能与记忆之间的交互本质仍未明确。本研究获得了独特的契机，对两位在世界记忆锦标赛（World Memory Championships）中斩获卓越佳绩的个体展开测试——二人曾在面孔-名字关联记忆（face-name association memory）项目中创下多项世界纪录。我们设计了一系列面孔加工任务，旨在探究卓越/专家级面孔记忆能力是否与加工面孔的独特知觉策略存在关联。顶尖记忆高手在涉及面孔-名字关联学习的任务中表现优异，但在探查面孔加工系统效率的任务中，他们与对照组被试同样出现了功能受损：包括面孔倒置效应（face inversion）与异族效应（other-race effect）。超级记忆者的海马体积（hippocampal volumes）并未出现增大，且在完成复杂的多项目面孔-名字关联任务时，展现出了最优的一般性眼动策略。本研究数据表明，面孔加工系统的视觉计算机制并不具备可塑性，且在经过大量关联记忆训练的后天专长面前仍保持稳定。