Recognition through Evolution

[Lestat]

Suppose aliens came to earth. These aliens do not have faces per'se, but they do have eyes. They distinguish between different members of their own species by recongizing the spot patterns on their bodies. No two spot patterns are exactly alike, so it's easy for one to tell that this spot pattern is Mom, that spot pattern is Dad, and another spot pattern is sis, or another spot pattern is their neighbor George, and so on.

If they came to earth, would they be able to distinguish between humans by our facial features? Could they tell that Sklansky is not Malmuth, just by their face?

So this is another question I have about evolutionary development in terms of recognition. We can easily tell between different people, but animals tend to look very much alike to us. For instance, unless you're very familiar with an individual animal, all Irish Setters will look pretty much alike to you. As will lions, tigers, bears, etc. We could easier distinguish them by size and weight, than we could by facial features.

Why is that? Is it an evolutionary benefit to these animals to have such symmetrical facial features as to be almost indistinguishable? Or have we just evolved to recognize details in human facial features, while not paying much attention to it in animals?

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I think it's more deep and interesting than my feeble attempt makes it. There must be an evoluationary reason why most animals are indistinguishable to us, while humans are not. Or does it have nothing to do with us and animals have evolved to be more difficult to recognize individually for some other reason?

One thing that comes to mind is the hunt. A gazelle that stands out will be a more prime target for a lion. So it makes sense that it helps them to all look the same, in order to confuse the lion who is pursuing them. But then, why did lions evolve to have indistinguishable facial features

[vhawk01]

Yeah, we have amazingly sophisticated facial recognition software, slightly less amazing general pattern-recognition software.

[Prodigy54321]

I think it is important to consider that facial recognition may be more than simple pattern or feature recognition.

There is a specific, I think genetic mutation, although it may also happen to brain damage victims, that makes people unable to recognize faces...I believe they can, however, recognize most other things..

recognizing human faces may be much different from recognizing other patterns and features..

just a thought...not sure how this relates to your question.

[Lestat]

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Yeah, we have amazingly sophisticated facial recognition software, slightly less amazing general pattern-recognition software.

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Yes, but this software fails when it comes to recognition in other animal faces. So the question is; is the software really failing? Or have animals evolved to have truly indistinguishable facial features. And if so, why?

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, we have amazingly sophisticated facial recognition software, slightly less amazing general pattern-recognition software.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, but this software fails when it comes to recognition in other animal faces. So the question is; is the software really failing? Or have animals evolved to have truly indistinguishable facial features. And if so, why?

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The software just doesn't pay attention to the irrelevant factors of a face, the parts that animals don't share with humans? I guess I'm not sure.

[bunny]

My father lived in China for several months sometime in the early 70s (when asian faces in Australia were very rare and anglo faces in china were negligible). When he got off the plane in Australia he had the brief experience of not being able to distinguish between the people in the airport. He actually had a moment of doubting he would be able to recognise his wife and kids as he had tuned himself to notice different facial features to distinguish between people. (ie hair colour is much more uniform in china so he didnt bother to notice it when looking at people and telling them apart)

[Taraz]

[ QUOTE ]
My father lived in China for several months sometime in the early 70s (when asian faces in Australia were very rare and anglo faces in china were negligible). When he got off the plane in Australia he had the brief experience of not being able to distinguish between the people in the airport. He actually had a moment of doubting he would be able to recognise his wife and kids as he had tuned himself to notice different facial features to distinguish between people. (ie hair colour is much more uniform in china so he didnt bother to notice it when looking at people and telling them apart)

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Some of the research I've been doing for the past year has to do with adaptation to faces of different sorts. We did studies that showed that after you adapt to a face with certain exaggerated features by staring at it for a short period of time you subsequently judge normal faces differently. Not only that, but after adaptation normal faces look more similar to faces that are exaggerated in the opposite direction.

I realize that I worded the above kind of poorly, but here is an example. Lets say you adapt to a face that is stretched out so that the eyes seem really far apart. Now it becomes more difficult to tell the difference between a normal face and a face with the eyes too close together.

This might suggest that if you grow up in a homogeneous community where everyone has similar features it could be difficult to distinguish between faces who don't share these features. I think there is some anecdotal evidence of this since a lot of people think that all asians look the same or that all black people look the same. This could be due to the fact that people without exposure aren't as sensitive to the important facial features. All faces from an outside group just look so 'different' that you can't really distinguish between them.

[Rduke55]

This is a great subject.

Our facial recognition "software" is amazing. Many folks think it came about in part because of our unusual social system (including our communication by facial expressions). Other animals recognize each other, but often through other cues, such as smell, hearing, and some other visual cues than face. I'd imagine it's related to the idea that it's really difficult and expensive to make this software, both developmentally and evolutionarily, and they seem to do pretty well without it.

I'd think that we have evolved to recognize faces and that our faces evolved to become more distinguishable and the differences in, say, bears' faces are way more subtle that we could pick up on.

It's not surprising. There's no real reason for animals (except for domesticated pets like dogs and cats, and some of our primate relatives) to be able to recognize individuals of another species. They don't have the machinery to do it. We can't pick out individual rats by their smell or bats by their vocalizations but they do a fantastic job.

[soon2bepro]

We have been learned to recognize human facial features.

I don't think it's genetic either. I think we just learn it by experience. Especially early life experience.

When I was 10 or so, I could easily tell a caucasian man from another, but if you asked me to distinguish between asian men it was a little more complicated. I remember honestly thinking it was impossible to tell one from the other. And this was before I even got exposed to the idea by outside sources, I came up with it myself.

When white people say all asian men look alike, they're not just joking. For many that's the way it is. But we can easily learn to adapt if we start getting in contact with more asian people. Nowadays I can easily recognize an asian guy that I've seen for just a couple of seconds. I still have it easier with caucasian people, but I'd expect that to reverse if I were to move to tokio for the next 10 years.

[soon2bepro]

But smell oriented animals do recognize a human from another by their smell, as long as they've had a certain deal of contact with them (the ones being recognized)

[ALawPoker]

I tend to assume that it's just because (along with what Rduke said) we have no *need* to recognize the faces of another species. So the ability to do so was never selected for. I dunno. I guess that's a pretty simplistic answer.

I can't really think up exactly what may have forced our sharp ability to recognize each other's faces. Evolution is tough to get a perfect read on. But it definitely makes sense to me that I'd guess, mostly on an educated whim, that it came along the time that our capacity (and esteemed social regard) for loyalty and empathy were developing.

[soon2bepro]

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I tend to assume that it's just because (along with what Rduke said) we have no *need* to recognize the faces of another species. So the ability to do so was never selected for.

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This is highly dubious to say the least. Newborns can't even make up a reasonable worldview from the bunch of images they're getting when they open their eyes, much less recognize someone by their looks.

Have that baby grow up with wild wolves and he/she won't be able to tell between a human face and another, but he/she will easily distinguish between different wolves.

[ALawPoker]

A newborn can't solve an algebra problem either. But he still has the capacity for it.

Raise him with a bunch of wolves, and indeed, he will not learn algebra.