The ability of school-age children who were visually impaired and their sighted peers to recognize faces was compared over seven tasks that were designed to detect both qualitative and quantitative differences between the two groups in this regard. Although no differences were found in the two groups’ ability to identify entire faces, the visually impaired children were at a disadvantage when part of the face, especially the eyes, was not visible. In addition, whereas children with better visual acuity seem to discriminate faces on the basis of internal features, children with worse visual acuity seem to be dependent on hair and the contour of faces.
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