Masked and elusive: congruency fails in video-to-photo face matching

Recognizing masked perpetrators in real-world surveillance scenarios poses significant challenges due to facial occlusion and degraded image quality. This study investigated the effects of contextual congruency on matching surveillance videos to suspects' photos. Participants (N = 229) completed a face-matching task involving four masked or unmasked video targets paired with either full face or masked photos. Matching accuracy was significantly higher for unmasked faces compared to masked faces, with no significant congruency effect between video and photo conditions. Participants' confidence was generally higher in congruent than incongruent conditions, particularly when viewing full-face videos. The confidence-accuracy relationship was condition-dependent, emerging as significant only when masked videos were paired with masked photographs. These findings emphasize the limitations of human performance in identifying masked individuals under degraded conditions and the constraints of potential strategies for improving face recognition in forensic and surveillance contexts.