The Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT) was a

cognitive test Cognitive tests are assessments of the cognitive capabilities of humans and other animals. Tests administered to humans include various forms of IQ tests; those administered to animals include the mirror test (a test of visual self-awareness) and ...

designed to determine a person's ability to match different images of unfamiliar faces. Created by researchers Michael Burton (Mike Burton) of the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, David White of the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

and Allan McNeill of

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University, informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley (), is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and Glasgow Polytechnic (originally Glasg ...

, the test was designed for use in academic research and in applied security settings, where reliable human performance on this task is a common requirement of

identity management Identity and access management (IAM or IdAM) or Identity management (IdM), is a framework of policies and technologies to ensure that the right users (that are part of the ecosystem connected to or within an enterprise) have the appropriate acce ...

systems. The test was created using a database of photographs, taken of a demographically heterogeneous sample of 300 people. Images of the individuals were captured in a fifteen-minute session on two digital cameras (one video, one still). Similar individuals were paired to make "different" pairs and "same" pairs were made by pairing images from the two different cameras. All images used were high quality, with the subject standing face on and looking straight at the camera lens, which was positioned at head height. In 2022, an updated version of the GFMT was published in the journal ''Behavior Research Methods''. The GFMT2 replaces the earlier GFMT which has been discontinued. The GFMT2 uses the same source database of photographs as the original test, but draws on images from video files that were not used in the original GFMT. There are three GFMT2 subtests: (i) GFMT2-S is an 80-item test, (ii) GFMT2-High is a 40 item test for studies targeting high performing participants, (iii) GFMT2-Low is a 40 item test for studies targeting low performing participants. In 2025, a paper by David White and colleagues found that average test scores attained on the GFMT2 subtests varied considerably depending on how these participants were recruited. In light of these findings, GFMT2-High is now considered the standard Glasgow Face Matching Test version as it provides the most optimal psychometric properties.

References

{{wikinews, Australian and British psychologists study errors in passport face matching Facial recognition

See also

References