ArticleCognitive research: principles and implications2022
Face masks disrupt holistic processing and face perception in school-age children.
Article in Cognitive research: principles and implications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Face Processing in Early Development: A Systematic Review of Behavioral Studies and Considerations in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- [Impact of wearing face masks in public to prevent infectious diseases on the psychosocial development in children and adolescents: a systematic review].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2021Pooled it
- Individual gaze preferences and attentional cues interact in masked and unmasked face recognition.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2026Article
- Nationwide insights on early childhood neurodevelopment during a global health crisis: evidence from COVID-19 in South Korea.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Risks and benefits of face masks in children.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- Impact of mask-wearing on emotion recognition accuracy and fixation duration in young children.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Unveiling the "Less is More" paradox: How experience and cognitive filling drive attractiveness in occluded faces.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- Facemasks reduce face trustworthiness perceived by deaf individuals.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mask dynamics in eye region-based person identification: Effects of mask removal and addition.Journal of vision · 2025Article
- Challenges of face identification with varied mask coverage in the post COVID-19 era.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Unintended consequences of measures implemented in the school setting to contain the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Article
- Beyond the Whole: Reduced Empathy for Masked Emotional Faces Is Not Driven by Disrupted Configural Face Processing.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Potential Impacts of Prolonged Face Mask Use on Temporomandibular Joint Health as Neglected Lifestyle Repercussions of COVID-19 Pandemic-A Narrative Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Review
- In masks we trust: explicit and implicit reactions to masked faces vary by political orientation.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Face masks and fake masks: the effect of real and superimposed masks on face matching with super-recognisers, typical observers, and algorithms.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024Article
- The effect of surgical masks on identification decisions from masked and unmasked lineups.Psychiatry, psychology, and law : an interdisciplinary journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law · 2024Article
- Patients and general practitioners agree that wearing masks during consultations complicates physician--patient relationships: An exploratory, qualitative study.The European journal of general practice · 2023Article
- Influence of child and adult faces with face masks on emotion perception and facial mimicry.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- When less is not more: the effect of transparent masks on facial attractiveness judgment.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2023Article
- Face masks negatively skew theory of mind judgements.Scientific reports · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Face perception is considered a remarkable visual ability in humans that is subject to a prolonged developmental trajectory. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, mask-wearing has become mandatory for adults and children alike. Recent research shows that mask-wearing hinders face recognition abilities in adults, but it is unknown if the same holds true in school-age children in whom face perception is not fully developed. Here we tested children (n = 72, ages 6-14 years old) on the Cambridge Face Memory Test - Kids (CFMT-K), a validated measure of face perception performance. Faces were presented with or without masks and across two orientations (upright/inverted). The inclusion of face masks led to a profound deficit in face perception abilities. This decrement was more pronounced in children compared to adults, but only when task difficulty was adjusted across the two age groups. Additionally, children exhibited reliable correlations between age and the CFMT-K score for upright faces for both the mask and no-mask conditions. Finally, as previously observed in adults, children also showed qualitative differences in the processing of masked versus non-masked faces. Specifically, holistic processing, a hallmark of face perception, was disrupted for masked faces as suggested by a reduced face-inversion effect. Together, these findings provide evidence for substantial quantitative and qualitative alterations in the processing of masked faces in school-age children.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.