The role of serial dependence of facial identity in face recognition

The ability to recognise faces is critical to social interactions, however the processes underlying this ability are not fully understood. Here, I investigated the functional importance of one process, serial dependence, in which perception of identity is biased by previously seen faces. I found that serial dependence acts directly on facial identity and contributes to individual variation in face recognition ability. Additionally, serial dependence was modulated by experience with categories of faces and was weaker in individuals with more autistic traits (who have poorer face recognition abilities). Overall, my findings suggest that serial dependence is important to face recognition.