单选题 The old saying of never forgetting a pretty face might be untrue as psychologists believe beautiful people are less likely to be recognized. A new study suggests that attractiveness can actually prevent the recognition of faces, unless a pretty face is particularly distinctive.
German psychologists think the recognition of pretty faces is distorted by emotions. Scientists at the University of Jena, Germany, discovered that photos of unattractive people were more easily remembered than pretty ones when they showed them to a group of people. Researchers Holger Wiese, Carolin Altmann and Stefan Schweinberger from the university, wrote in their study: "We could show that the test subjects were more likely to remember unattractive faces than attractive ones, when the latter didn"t have any particularly noticeable traits."
For the study, which was published in science magazine Neuropsychologia , the psychologists showed photos of faces to test subjects. Half of the faces were considered to be more attractive and the other half as less attractive, but all of them were being thought of as similarly distinctive looking. The test subjects were shown the faces for just a few seconds to memorize them and were shown them again during the test so that they could decide if they recognized them or not.
The scientists were surprised by the result. "Until now we assumed that it was generally easier to memorize faces which are being perceived as attractive, just because we prefer looking at beautiful faces," Dr. Wiese said. But the study showed that such a connection cannot be easily sustained. He assumes that remembering pretty faces is distorted by emotional influences, which enhance the sense of recognition at a later time. The researchers" idea is backed up by evidence from EEG-recordings which show the brain"s electric activity, which the scientists used during their experiment.
The study also revealed that in the case of attractive faces, considerably more false positive results were detected. In other words, people thought they recognized a face without having seen it before. "We obviously tend to believe that we recognize a face just because we find it attractive." Dr. Wiese said.

单选题 What can be learned from the new study?

单选题 Which one is True about the photos of faces mentioned in Paragraph 3?

单选题 Why do we generally assume it is easier to memorize beautiful faces?

单选题 How do emotional influences distort remembering pretty faces?

单选题 What does "false positive results" (Para. 5) mean?