你能記住多少人的臉？

For the first time, scientists have been able to put a figure on how many faces people actually know– a staggering 5,000 on average.

科學家們第一次確定了人類可以記住的面孔數(shù)量——平均達到驚人的5000張臉。

 

Until now, there has been no method for estimating the number of faces people know. Image credit: Dr Rob Jenkins, University of York.

到目前為止，還沒有方法可以估算出人們所知道的面孔數(shù)量。圖片來源：約克大學Rob Jenkins博士

The research team, from the University of York, tested study participants on how many faces they could recall from their personal lives and the media, as well as the number of famous faces they recognised.

來自約克大學的研究小組對志愿者進行了測試，看看他們可以從個人生活和媒體中回憶出多少張面孔，以及他們認出的知名人物的數(shù)量。

Humans have typically lived in small groups of around one hundred individuals, but the study suggests our facial recognition abilities equip us to deal with the thousands of faces we encounter in the modern world – on our screens as well as in social interactions.

人類通常生活在約100人構成的小團體中，但該研究表明，我們的面部識別能力使我們能夠記住在現(xiàn)代世界中看過的成千上萬的臉，無論是在我們的屏幕上還是在社交互動中。

Facial vocabulary

面部詞匯量

The results provide a baseline with which to compare the “facial vocabulary” size of humans with facial recognition software that is increasingly used to identify people at airports and in police investigations.

這一結果為以后的研究提供了一個基線，可以比較人類的“面部詞匯量”的大小與面部識別軟件的能力，而后者正越來越多地被用于機場安全預警和警方調查。

Dr Rob Jenkins, from the Department of Psychology at the University of York, said: “Our study focused on the number of faces people actually know– we haven’t yet found a limit on how many faces the brain can handle.

約克大學心理學系的Rob Jenkins博士說：“我們研究的主要關注點是，人們實際掌握的面孔數(shù)量——我們還沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)大腦在此方面的極限。“

“The ability to distinguish different individuals is clearly important—it allows you to keep track of people’s behaviour over time, and to modify your own behaviour accordingly.”

”區(qū)分不同個體的能力顯然非常重要——它可以讓您隨著時間的推移去跟蹤人們的行為，并相應地修正自己的行為。”

Famous faces

著名的面孔

For the study, participants spent an hour writing down as many faces from their personal lives as possible – including people they went to school with, colleagues and family. They then did the same for famous faces, such as actors, politicians, and other public figures.

在研究中，參與者花了一個小時寫下盡可能多的人名——出現(xiàn)在自己的生活之中，且記下了長相的人——包括同學、同事和家人。然后，他們再寫下自己記得長相的公共人物，比如演員、政治家和其他公眾人物。

The participants found it easy to come up with lots of faces at first, but harder to think of new ones by the end of the hour. That change of pace allowed the researchers to estimate when they would run out of faces completely.

參與者發(fā)現(xiàn)，一開始很容易就喚起大量的面孔，但在隨著時間推移，越來越難想到新面孔。這種節(jié)奏的變化使研究人員能夠估計出他們什么時候會完全耗盡自己的面部詞匯量。

The participants were also shown thousands of photographs of famous people and asked which ones they recognised. The researchers required participants to recognise two different photos of each person to ensure consistency.

研究人員還向參與者展示了成千上萬的著名人物的照片，并詢問他們認出了哪些人。研究人員要求參與者至少識別出同一人物的兩張不同照片以確保一致性。

Natural aptitude?

天生的能力?

The results showed that the participants knew between 1,000 and 10,000 faces.

結果顯示參與者記憶中有1000到10000張面孔。

Dr Jenkins added: “The range could be explained by some people having a natural aptitude for remembering faces. There are differences in how much attention people pay to faces, and how efficiently they process the information.

Jenkins博士補充說：“變動的范圍可以解釋為一些人有記憶人臉的天賦。人們對臉部的關注度以及他們處理信息的效率有所不同。

“Alternatively, it could reflect different social environments–some participants may have grown up in more densely populated places with more social input.”

“或者，它可以反映不同的社會環(huán)境——一些參與者可能在人口稠密的地方長大，人際接觸更多。”

The mean age of the studies participants was 24 and, according to the researchers, age provides an intriguing avenue for further research.

參與者的平均年齡為24歲，據(jù)研究人員稱，針對其他年齡段的測試，是后續(xù)研究的一個有趣的未來方向。

“It would be interesting to see whether there is a peak age for the number of faces we know”, said Dr Jenkins. “Perhaps we accumulate faces throughout our lifetimes, or perhaps we start to forget some after we reach a certain age.”

Jenkins博士說：“看看我們所能知道的面孔數(shù)量是否已經(jīng)達到峰值將會很有趣。也許我們在一生中始終記得那些面容，或者在達到某個年齡后，我們可能會開始忘記一些面孔。”