Date of Award

12-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Psychological Science

Department

Psychology

First Reader/Committee Chair

Brunet, Nicolas

Abstract

Facial recognition plays an important role in human survival and social communication. It relies on fast and efficient visual processing in the brain, as reflected by the P100 and N170 event-related potential (ERP) components. These ERPs are early and mid-latency stamps of facial recognition that reflect visual detection and structural processing of faces. Previous studies have shown that the N170 is sensitive to disruptions in facial configuration, such as inversion or partial face obscuration caused by masks. The present study, however, examines a common yet overlooked visual addition that may influence the N170: eyewear. Specifically, this study investigates how regular glasses and sunglasses affect ERP responses during facial recognition. Participants viewed 180 AI-generated facial stimuli, balanced by sex and race, and selected the gender of each stimulus across three eyewear conditions: no glasses, regular glasses, and sunglasses. Results revealed that eyewear significantly modulated ERP amplitudes. The sunglasses elicited the largest amplitude, followed by regular glasses, and the no glasses condition showed the smallest amplitude. Overall, these findings suggest that even visual additions, like eyewear, can increase neural processing resources during face recognition, indicating the brain is allocating additional cognitive resources when key facial features are visually obstructed.

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