Human performance in identifying masked face

Humans who spend most of their time looking at faces throughout their lives can be quite successful in facial recognition. When faces are partially covered by medical masks, glasses and accessories, this identification success may decrease. The purpose of this study is to determine how successfully people who witnessed the events can identify faces that are mostly covered by medical masks in the event that a crime is committed. The study referred to 195 participants and used 40 facial images (20 masked, 20 unmasked). The obtained data was statistically analyzed using SPSS 20.0, including frequency analysis, regression analysis, and ANOVA. While there was no substantial difference in identification performance across sexes, age had an impact on identification. However, participants identified medical masked faces more accurately than unmasked ones.