Impact of Mask Use on Face Recognition in Children: An Eye-Tracking Study

We examined the impact of mask use on face recognition in children across early childhood, middle childhood, and early adolescence. While children across the developmental stages were similarly affected in recognition accuracy and eye movement pattern, they differed in the impact on response time and eye movement consistency during two challenging scenarios where the mask conditions during face learning and recognition did not match. As compared with learning and recognizing unmasked faces, when recognizing masked faces learned without a mask on, similar to adults, children in early adolescence had slower responses, whereas younger children did not. When recognizing unmasked faces learned with a mask on, younger children had decreased eye movement consistency, whereas children in early adolescence did not, similar to adults. These findings suggest that children in early and middle childhood have different vulnerability to mask use in society from adolescents and adults, with important implications for age-specific interventions.