Memory for Faces Peaks at 30

Usually, mental ability and skills reach their peak in the early 20s.

In a discovery that bucks the established trend, scientists have found that people remember unfamiliar faces best between the ages of 30 and 34. This is unexpected because most researchers think that word skill, memory and other mental skills peak in the early 20s, when the brain reaches full maturity. Memory for names and upside-down faces peaks at 23 to 24.

But, this test, to be published in the upcoming issue of Cognition, has found that face learning takes about a decade longer to be perfected. The tests were conducted online, with 44,680 volunteers, age 10 to 70.

“Specialised face-processing in the brain may require an extended period of visual tuning during early adulthood to help individuals learn and recognise lots of different faces,” Laura Germine, psychology graduate student and the leader of the team of researchers, says. Psychologist Isabel Gauthier of Vanderbilt University says the new findings fit with evidence that a brain structure critical for face recognition—the fusiform gyrus—undergoes reorganisation at least through young adulthood.  “What is somewhat surprising is that there is still room for improvement after years of learning faces,” Gauthier says. Scientists now need to track individuals from childhood to adulthood to confirm this, she adds.