The main task in three dimensional non-rigid shape correspondence is to retrieve similarities between two or more similar three dimensional objects. A useful way to tackle this problem is to construct a simplified shape representation, called feature descriptor, which is invariant under deformable transformations. A successful class of such feature descriptors is based on physical phenomena, concretely by the heat equation for the heat kernel signature and the Schrodinger equation for ¨ the wave kernel signature. Both approaches employ the spectral decomposition of the Laplace-Beltrami operator, meaning that solutions of the corresponding equations are expressed by a series expansion in terms of eigenfunctions. The feature descriptor is then computed at hand of those solutions. In this paper we explore the influence of the amount of used eigenfunctions on shape correspondence applications, as this is a crucial point with respect to accuracy and overall computational efficiency of the method. Our experimental study will be performed at hand of a standard shape data set.