Cook, M. (1978). Eye movements during recognition of faces. In M. M. Gruneberg, P. E. Morris, & R. N. Sykes (Eds.), Practical Aspects of Memory (pp. 286-292). London: Academic Press.

Eye movements of eight subjects were recorded while they looked at and later recognised unfamiliar faces and while recognising familiar ones. Data on number, target and order of points looked at are generally consistent with a feature testing model of recognition, with two important exceptions, that are more consistent with a pattern matching model.

Research on the way people recognise faces has both practical and theoretical interests. So too has research on the contribution of parts of the face to ease of recognition. Fisher and Cox (1975) showed that the eyes were the single most important feature, but also found that the eyes alone were not enought to identify the face. Only 12% of their faces could be recognised from the eyes alone. The combination of eyes and nose could be identified in 23% of cases, and the combination of mouth and nose in 16%. These findings lead one to expect that at least two parts of the face will be looked at before identification can be made.