Most current psychological theories of face recognition suggest that faces are stored as multiple 2D
views. This research aims to explore the application of 3D face representations by means of a new paradigm.
Participants were required to match frontal views of faces to silhouettes of the same faces. The
formats of the face stimuli were modified in different experiments to make 3D representations accessible
(Experiments 1 and 2) or inaccessible (Experiment 3). Multiple 2D view-based algorithms were not applicable
due to the singularity of the frontal-view faces. The results disclosed the application and adaptability
of 3D face representations. Participants can readily solve the tasks when the face images retain the
information essential for the formation of a 3D face representations. However, the performance substantially
declined when the 3D information in faces was eliminated (Experiment 3). Performance also varied
between different face orientations and different participant groups.