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‘Seeing is Believing’: The Effect of Viewing and Constructing a Composite on Identification Performance
Abstract
This experiment investigated the effects of composite construction and viewing on later identification recognition accuracy. A total of 122 participants were exposed to a composite target for five seconds and then randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, view, or construction. Participants in the construction group were required to produce a composite of the original target. Participants in the view group were exposed to a composite created by another participant (a constructor). The control group completed a distractor task. After a delay, all participants returned to select the target from a lineup. Individual lineups were created for each participant. Lineups were constructed by blending the participant's construction with the target face to form a graded lineup of similar faces. The construction group performed significantly more poorly than the control group (51.22% vs. 23.26%) and target identifications were also lower for the view group compared to the control group (26.23% vs. 51.22%). This study showed similar results to those of previous work, indicating that composite construction decreases identification performance. Furthermore, mere exposure to a composite may also contaminate the memory trace for the original target.
... There may have been alternative inculpating evidence, so that the facial composite procedure was not necessarily responsible. However, line-up accuracy can be impaired e.g., [7][8][9][10] , unaffected e.g., 8 . However, with all holistic systems, successive arrays of images are used to achieve a step-by-step improvement in composite-to-culprit likeness. ...
... Some research has found that composite creation enhances identification accuracy, when performance is compared with noncomposite creating controls e.g., [11][12] . Other research, primarily employing feature-based systems has found that composite creation negatively impacts identification performance e.g., 7,[9][10] . If a composite is a poor likeness to the culprit, identification accuracy appears most susceptible 8,10 . ...
... However, this result is consistent with research finding a positive relationship between composite quality and rates of correct identification from line-ups 10 . This explanation is also consistent with most previous research of this type, which has used the often inferior feature-based composite systems, finding that identification accuracy was reduced following composite construction e.g., 7,[9][10] . ...
The paradigm detailed in this manuscript describes an applied experimental method based on real police investigations during which an eyewitness or victim to a crime may create from memory a holistic facial composite of the culprit with the assistance of a police operator. The aim is that the composite is recognized by someone who believes that they know the culprit. For this paradigm, participants view a culprit actor on video and following a delay, participant-witnesses construct a holistic system facial composite. Controls do not construct a composite. From a series of arrays of computer-generated, but realistic faces, the holistic system construction method primarily requires participant-witnesses to select the facial images most closely meeting their memory of the culprit. Variation between faces in successive arrays is reduced until ideally the final image possesses a close likeness to the culprit. Participant-witness directed tools can also alter facial features, configurations between features and holistic properties (e.g., age, distinctiveness, skin tone), all within a whole face context. The procedure is designed to closely match the holistic manner by which humans’ process faces. On completion, based on their memory of the culprit, ratings of composite-culprit similarity are collected from the participant-witnesses. Similar ratings are collected from culprit-acquaintance assessors, as a marker of composite recognition likelihood. Following a further delay, all participants — including the controls — attempt to identify the culprit in either a culprit-present or culprit-absent video line-up, to replicate circumstances in which the police have located the correct culprit, or an innocent suspect. Data of control and participant-witness line-up outcomes are presented, demonstrating the positive influence of holistic composite construction on identification accuracy. Correlational analyses are conducted to measure the relationship between assessor and participant-witness compositeculprit similarity ratings, delay, identification accuracy, and confidence to examine which factors influence video line-up outcomes.
... Some previous research has found that face recognition and identification accuracy can be enhanced by creating a composite of that face (e.g., Davis et al., 2014; for a meta-analysis see Meissner & Brigham, 2001). In contrast, other research, all employing feature-based systems, has found that composite construction impairs subsequent identification performance (e.g., Davies, Ellis, & Shepherd, 1978;Kempen & Tredoux, 2012;Wells, Charman, & Olson, 2005), particularly if the composite looks nothing like the face it is supposed to depict (Wells et al., 2005). This suggests that for constructors, a facial composite may provide a more salient memory than that of the original suspect. ...
... Nevertheless, these results stand in stark contrast to previous research employing featurebased composite systems finding that constructor lineup accuracy was inferior to that of controls (Davies et al., 1978;Kempen & Tredoux, 2012;Wells et al., 2005). ...
When the police have no suspect, they may ask an eyewitness to construct a facial composite of that suspect from memory. Faces are primarily processed holistically, and recently developed computerized holistic facial composite systems (e.g., EFIT-V) have been designed to match these processes. The reported research compared children aged 6-11 years with adults on their ability to construct a recognizable EFIT-V composite. Adult constructor's EFIT-Vs received significantly higher composite-suspect likeness ratings from assessors than children's, although there were some notable exceptions. In comparison to adults, the child constructors also overestimated the composite-suspect likeness of their own EFIT-Vs. In a second phase, there were no differences between adult controls and constructors in correct identification rates from video lineups. However, correct suspect identification rates by child constructors were lower than those of child controls, suggesting that a child's memory for the suspect can be adversely influenced by composite construction. Nevertheless, all child constructors coped with the demands of the EFIT-V system, and the implications for research, theory, and the criminal justice system practice are discussed.
... Results of this study indicate that creating a composite significantly impairs later identification accuracy. These findings are consistent with previous research finding detrimental effects of composite construction on later identification ( Comish, 1987;Kempen & Tredoux, 2012;Wells et al., 2005). Although others have found that composite construction facilitates accuracy ( Meissner & Brigham, 2001), this study examined computerized composite systems, and this medium differs from those finding facilitation effects. ...
... Although others have found that composite construction facilitates accuracy ( Meissner & Brigham, 2001), this study examined computerized composite systems, and this medium differs from those finding facilitation effects. The study found consistent results with those using FACES ( Kempen & Tredoux, 2012;Wells et al., 2005). In addition, not only did creating a composite decrease identification accuracy but merely viewing a composite during the week delay decreased accuracy as well. ...
Purpose
This study examined how constructing and viewing facial composites affects memory accuracy.
Method
Participants ( n = 240) viewed a target face for 60 s; half were then randomly assigned to construct a facial composite while the other half completed a distracter task. Participants were then randomly assigned to view a composite either once, twice or not at all during a 1‐week delay between the first and second session. Those who constructed a composite viewed their own composite during the 1‐week delay, while those who did not construct a composite were yoked with someone who did, thereby viewing their counterpart's composite. In session 2, all participants completed a six‐person forced‐choice identification task. The participant was asked to identify the target from a six‐person photo array. The photo array was composed of the target, the composite, and four morphed images that combined certain percentages of both the target and composite.
Results
Results showed that identification accuracy was lower for those who created a composite versus those who did not. These individuals were likely to identify an image consisting of a blend between the target and composite more often than those not creating a composite. In addition, those who only viewed a composite experienced memory contamination similar to those who created a composite.
Conclusion
Our findings illustrate that creating a composite or simply viewing someone else's composite hinders identification accuracy and one's memory for the target face. This research provides important implications regarding the methods used in collecting eyewitness descriptions during the investigative process.
... 356). Three studies have examined the role of similarity in more detail by varying the lineup images' degree of similarity to the target face and the created composite (Comish, 1987;Kempen and Tredoux, 2012;Topp-Manriquez et al., 2016). In these studies, the target was always a composite face rather than a natural face to permit realistic morphing. ...
An eyewitness can contribute to a police investigation both by creating a composite image of the face of the perpetrator and by attempting to identify them during an identification procedure. This raises the potential issue that creating a composite of a perpetrator might then interfere with the subsequent identification of that perpetrator. Previous research exploring this issue has tended to use older feature-based composite systems, but the introduction of new holistic composite systems is an important development as they were designed to be a better match for human cognition and are likely to interact with memory in a different way. This issue was explored in the current experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to a feature-based composite construction condition (using E-FIT), a holistic-based composite construction condition (using EFIT-V) or a control condition. An ecologically valid delay between seeing a staged crime, creating the composite, and completing the identification task was employed to better match conditions in real investigations. The results showed that neither type of composite construction had an effect on participants’ accuracy on a subsequent identification task. This suggests that facial composite systems, including holistic systems, may not negatively impact subsequent eyewitness identification evidence.
... Merlin then helps users further refine their identifications on the basis of attributes they saw, such as color, size, and behavior. However, people notice, recall, and describe the same details many different ways, including ways that do not match the descriptors in a database provided by experts (e.g., Kempen and Tredoux 2012); the end result can be a misidentification. To improve the returns of searches based on variable responses, Merlin uses artificial intelligence algorithms to consider a user's prior responses to inform the next question it asks, in much the same way that the Go Botany algorithm does. ...
To conserve species, we must first identify them. Field researchers, land managers, educators, and citizen scientists need
up-to-date and accessible tools to identify organisms, organize data, and share observations. Emerging technologies complement
traditional, book-form field guides by providing users with a wealth of multimedia data. We review technical innovations of
next-generation field guides, including Web-based and stand-alone applications, interactive multiple-access keys, visual-recognition
software adapted to identify organisms, species checklists that can be customized to particular sites, online communities
in which people share species observations, and the use of crowdsourced data to refine machine-based identification algorithms.
Next-generation field guides are user friendly; permit quality control and the revision of data; are scalable to accommodate
burgeoning data; protect content and privacy while allowing broad public access; and are adaptable to ever-changing platforms
and browsers. These tools have great potential to engage new audiences while fostering rigorous science and an appreciation
for nature.
Previous research has produced equivocal results with regards to whether facial composite creation affects subsequent eyewitness identification accuracy, but the most widely publicized view is that creating a composite impairs the ability to later recognize the perpetrator from a line-up. In our first experiment, we examined this effect using several ecologically valid elements including a live staged crime, trained police officers and a long delay between construction and identification, albeit with only a short delay between crime and composite construction. Composite construction did not significantly affect line-up identification accuracy. Experiment 2 replicated this result using a laboratory-based design and sequential line-up task, eliminating the possibly confounding effect of differential levels of motivation and relative judgements. Taken together, the experiments suggest composite creation may not negatively impact subsequent line-up accuracy, regardless of whether an ecologically valid method or more standard laboratory testing was used.
Witnesses to a crime may be asked to create a facial composite of the offender from memory. They may then view a suspect in a police line-up. Previous research on this topic has found both recognition impairment and enhancement following composite construction. In Experiment 1, creator-participants employed the holistic facial composite system system EFIT-V or the feature-based E-FIT system to create a single composite, and in Experiment 2, creators constructed up to three EFIT-Vs. In both experiments, facial composite creators were one-and-a-half times more likely than non-composite creating controls to make correct target identifications from a video line-up. No between condition effects were found in target-absent trials in Experiment 1. The development of holistic facial composite systems has enhanced suspect identification rates in police investigations, and these results suggest that the use of such a system can also have a positive influence on a composite-creating witness' later recognition of the suspect. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Staged crime research has demonstrated the utility of controlling the conduct of lineups as a means of reducing false identifications with little or no apparent decline in the rate of correct identifications by eyewitnesses (e.g., Lindsay & Wells, 1980; Malpass & Devine, 1981a; Wells, 1984). A recent variation in lineup procedure shows that a blank lineup, which includes no suspects, can reduce the rate of false identifications if it precedes the actual lineup. However, there are several practical problems that make it unlikely that police will accept this procedure. Sequential lineup presentation is proposed as a means of accomplishing the same goals of reducing false identifications with little or no loss in accurate identifications. A crime was staged for 240 unsuspecting eyewitnesses either individually or in pairs. One quarter of the eyewitnesses attempted identifications in each of four lineup conditions: Six pictures were presented either simultaneously, as used in traditional procedures, or sequentially, in which yes/no judgments were made for each picture; each procedure either contained the photograph of the criminal-confederate or a picture of a similar looking replacement. Sequential lineup presentation significantly reduced false identifications but did not significantly influence correct identifications when compared with the simultaneous procedure. This resulted in an overall increase in diagnosticity ratio (Wells & Lindsay, 1980) using the sequential procedure. The data are interpreted as supporting the conclusion that sequential presentation of lineups can reduce false identifications of innocent suspects by reducing eyewitnesses’ reliance on relative-judgment processes.
Persons who witnessed an automobile accident involving a green car were exposed to information that the car was blue. On a subsequent color recognition test, most subjects shifted their color selection in the direction of the misleading information and away from the actual perceived color. Shifting was greater for subjects who did not initially commit themselves to a color selection. Control subjects, who were not exposed to misleading information, distributed their chokes around the true color, and did not show a systematic color shift over time.
Examined the effects of constructing an Identi-kit composite of a target face on subsequent recognition of that face. 128 college students saw the target face (White male) for 4 or 15 sec, produced a composite, and then attempted to recognize the target in a series of 130 facial photographs. The target face appeared once, as the 125th slide in the series of 130. In some conditions, a delay of 2 days was introduced either between exposure and composite production or between production and recognition. Compared with controls, recognition for all conditions was better after composite production (hit rates of 60% and 90%, respectively). The longer exposure resulted in slightly better recognition. The 2-day delay had no effect. Another condition in which Ss verbally described the face led to recognition levels between those of the control and the composite-production conditions. Results point to retrieval mechanisms as the source of improved recognition. It is concluded that law enforcement procedures might benefit from construction techniques for improving recognition by eyewitnesses. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Conducted 3 experiments to examine the possibility that eyewitness identifications may be biased because persons may be much better able to recognize a face than to recall where they saw it. In Exp I, 14 college students were asked both to recognize 50 facial photographs seen 2 days before and to recall in which of 2 distinctive rooms they had been seen. Strong recognition and minimal recall were found. Exp II (64 college students) and III (146 college students) modeled more closely the usual criminal identification situation with mugshot and lineup sessions occurring after the initial encounter with the suspects. Ss in Exp II were aware they would need to remember the Ss' faces; in Exp III, they were not aware of this need. Both experiments provided evidence of considerable confusion in mugshot and lineup identifications as well as a lack of correlation between eyewitness accuracy and confidence. In addition, there were strong mugshot-induced biases in Exp III that could have a bearing on questions of legal procedure and admissibility of evidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated 60 undergraduates' accuracy in testimony and identification following either a violent (mugging) or a nonviolent (direction-seeking) videotaped incident in which 1, 3, or 5 perpetrators participated. The relationship between Ss' objective accuracy and their subjective feeling of certainty concerning correctness was also examined. Testimony was less accurate following the witnessing of the violent incident, and the decrease in accuracy was a function of the increase in the number of perpetrators seen, especially under the violent condition. The accuracy of identification was very low, with only 27% of Ss making a correct identification; chance performance was observed with 5 perpetrators. A positive accuracy–confidence relationship held for identification under the nonviolent condition but not under the violent condition. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Presents a meta-analysis of 128 eyewitness identification and facial recognition studies involving 960 experimental conditions and 16,950 Ss. The meta-analysis was designed to determine what knowledge has been accumulated on factors that influence facial identification performance and what areas of facial identification research would benefit from further research. Two techniques were used: an effect size analysis, which integrates the effect sizes of independent variables across studies, and a study-characteristics analysis, which integrates the influence of study characteristics on performance. A number of variables operating at the encoding and retrieval stages yielded large effects on performance. These variables included context reinstatement, transformations in the appearance of faces, depth of processing strategies, target distinctiveness, and elaboration at encoding. Additional variables yielding strong effects on recognition performance were exposure time, cross-racial identification, and retention interval. There was little correspondence between a variable's impact on hit rate and false-alarm rate. A list of the studies used in the meta-analysis is appended. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In Exp I, 46 male and 51 female undergraduates witnessed a filmed incident and later described the target. Results show that Ss who observed a composite containing misleading information (either incorrect hair or an added moustache) were significantly more likely to misreport hairstyle and the presence of a moustache than those who did not. In Exp II, 210 17–65 yr old Ss observed a filmed incident and were tested for their recall and recognition of the target either immediately or after delays of 2 or 7 days. Significant bias, consistent with the content of the misleading composite, was present for both cued recall and choice of mug shot in a photo spread. The effect did not increase over delay but was greater when the composite was seen just prior to recall than immediately after the incident. Implications concerning interference with the memory of the witness who produced the composite and for other witnesses exposed to the misleading composite are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Issues surrounding lineup fairness have been explored scientifically for over two decades. The present study investigates the applied/external validity of this line of research. First, several factors leading to bias in the construction of photo lineups are examined, and results of a preliminary survey on current law-enforcement practices are presented. Several statistics that have been developed to assess the fairness of lineups are reviewed and the application of these techniques to lineups used in 18 criminal cases is discussed, including the mixed agreement that sometimes occurs between estimates. Finally, we address the usefulness of lineup fairness assessment for expert testimony in the courtroom, and the dilemma that may be faced by the expert witness who is asked to testify by the defence. It is suggested that a useful and empirically justified index of overall lineup fairness can be created by combining a single estimate of bias (Functional Size) and a single estimate of lineup size (Effective Size) into a four-point index. Copyright
Recent studies have demonstrated that requesting individuals to produce a verbal description of a previously seen face can hinder subsequent attempts at identification. This phenomenon, termed ‘verbal overshadowing’, has been studied rather extensively in the face-identification paradigm; however, studies have not always replicated the general effect. Based upon both practical and theoretical interests in the phenomenon, a meta-analysis of 29 effect size comparisons (N = 2018) was conducted. Across the sample of studies there was a small, yet significant, negative effect (Fisher's Zr = −0.12), indicating some degree of verbal impairment or overshadowing. A fixed-effects analysis of several moderating variables demonstrated a significant effect of post-description delay and type of description instruction. The pattern of means indicated that overshadowing effects were more likely to occur when the identification task immediately followed the description task, and when participants were given an elaborative, as opposed to a standard (free recall), instruction during the description task. Inconsistencies in the literature are discussed, as well as various theoretical and applied issues regarding the verbal overshadowing effect. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This meta-analytic review examined 19 tests of the weapon focus effect—the hypothesis that the presence of a weapon during
commission of a crime will negatively affect an eyewitness's ability to later identify the perpetrator. A significant overall
difference between weapon-present and weaponabsent conditions was demonstrated, with weapon presence leading to reduced identification
accuracy. Overall, the size of the effect was small (.13) for the dependent measure of lineup identification and moderate
(.55) for feature accuracy. Discussion focuses on those factors that appear to mediate and facilitate the weapon focus effect.
The Identi-kit is a tool for constructing a facial composite. The types of errors made on a recognition task, following an intervening task involving the Identi-kit, were examined in this study. One hundred and eight introductory psychology students viewed a target composite-face and made an Identi-kit reconstruction. Subsequently, they were required to identify the original composite-face from a lineup of six composite-faces. Subjects who made an Identi-kit reconstruction were prone to make more errors on the recognition task than participants in a control condition, p < .01. False alarms were promoted when the subjects saw a lineup containing foils modified to resemble the subjects' own reconstruction errors, p < .05. When the foils in the lineup were not modified to resemble the subjects' own errors, those who made an Identi-kit reconstruction were more prone to miss the target, p < .05. This finding suggests that memory for facial stimuli can be influenced by viewing misleading information.
Are faces recognized using more holistic representations than other types of stimuli? Taking holistic representation to mean representation without an internal part structure, we interpret the available evidence on this issue and then design new empirical tests. Based on previous research, we reasoned that if a portion of an object corresponds to an explicitly represented part in a hierarchical visual representation, then when that portion is presented in isolation it will be identified relatively more easily than if it did not have the status of an explicitly represented part. The hypothesis that face recognition is holistic therefore predicts that a part of a face will be disproportionately more easily recognized in the whole face than as an isolated part, relative to recognition of the parts and wholes of other kinds of stimuli. This prediction was borne out in three experiments: subjects were more accurate at identifying the parts of faces, presented in the whole object, than they were at identifying the same part presented in isolation, even though both parts and wholes were tested in a forced-choice format and the whole faces differed only by one part. In contrast, three other types of stimuli--scrambled faces, inverted faces, and houses--did not show this advantage for part identification in whole object recognition.
Most police lineups use a simultaneous presentation technique in which eyewitnesses view all lineup members at the same time. Lindsay and Wells (R. C. L. Lindsay & G. L. Wells, 1985) devised an alternative procedure, the sequential lineup, in which witnesses view one lineup member at a time and decide whether or not that person is the perpetrator prior to viewing the next lineup member. The present work uses the technique of meta-analysis to compare the accuracy rates of these presentation styles. Twenty-three papers were located (9 published and 14 unpublished), providing 30 tests of the hypothesis and including 4,145 participants. Results showed that identification of perpetrators from target-present lineups occurs at a higher rate from simultaneous than from sequential lineups. However, this difference largely disappears when moderator variables approximating real world conditions are considered. Also, correct rejection rates were significantly higher for sequential than simultaneous lineups and this difference is maintained or increased by greater approximation to real world conditions. Implications of these findings are discussed.
In the past 30 years researchers have examined the impact of heightened stress on the fidelity of eyewitness memory. Meta-analyses were conducted on 27 independent tests of the effects of heightened stress on eyewitness identification of the perpetrator or target person and separately on 36 tests of eyewitness recall of details associated with the crime. There was considerable support for the hypothesis that high levels of stress negatively impact both types of eyewitness memory. Meta-analytic Z-scores, whether unweighted or weighted by sample size, ranged from -5.40 to -6.44 (high stress condition-low stress condition). The overall effect sizes were -.31 for both proportion of correct identifications and accuracy of eyewitness recall. Effect sizes were notably larger for target-present than for target-absent lineups, for eyewitness identification studies than for face recognition studies and for eyewitness studies employing a staged crime than for eyewitness studies employing other means to induce stress.
Face composite programs permit eyewitnesses to build likenesses of target faces by selecting facial features and combining them into an intact face. Research has shown that these composites are generally poor likenesses of the target face. Two experiments tested the proposition that this composite-building process could harm the builder's memory for the face. In Experiment 1 (n = 150), the authors used 50 different faces and found that the building of a composite reduced the chances that the person could later identify the original face from a lineup when compared with no composite control conditions or with yoked composite-exposure control conditions. In Experiment 2 (n = 200), the authors found that this effect generalized to a simulated-crime video, but mistaken identifications from target-absent lineups were not inflated by composite building.
The claim that sequential lineups are superior to simultaneous lineups and that our knowledge of sequential lineups is sufficient to warrant their being required by law is reviewed for the validity of both strong and weak claims of sequential superiority, adherence to principles of research design, and the needs of public policy. We conclude, (1) there is little evidence to support the claim that sequential presentation of photos is responsible for lower levels of false identifications, (2) the evidence is weak that the aggregation of factors commonly labeled as the sequential lineup together produce lower levels of false identifications without additional offsetting effects, (3) much of the literature contains several confounds in research design and additional offsetting effects that question its overall utility, (4) recent research shows that the superiority of sequential lineups is restricted to specific ranges on other study design variables, and (5) the corpus of research on sequential lineups does not satisfy the needs of policy sufficiently to justify its mandated use as the required identification procedure throughout the criminal justice system.
Previous research has found some forms of post-event activity, such as working with a sketch artist or viewing mugshots, to negatively affect the subsequent identification performance of an eyewitness. The present experiment examined potential carryover effects of forming an Identi-kit composite and writing a verbal description on the identification of an assailant from a photoarray. Both interventions were compared to a no-treatment (control) condition. Forming an Identi-kit composite increased witness sensitivity, causing subjects to be less likely to select any photo. In contrast, writing a description increased the likelihood that subjects identified the photo of the assailant. Neither intervention affected the likelihood of misidentification. Alternative theoretical explanations for the results and implications for field procedures are explored.
An evaluation of E-FIT, PROfit, Sketch, Photofit and EvoFIT composite construction techniques was carried out in a “forensically friendly format”: composites of unfamiliar targets were constructed from memory following a 3-4-hour delay using a Cognitive Interview and experienced operators. The main dependent variable was spontaneous naming and overall performance was low (10% average naming rate). E-FITs were named better than all techniques except PROfit, though E-FIT was superior to PROfit when the target was more distinctive. E-FIT, PROfit and Sketch were similar overall in a composite sorting task, but Sketch emerged best for more average-looking targets. Photofit performed poorly, as did EvoFIT, an experimental system. Overall, facial distinctiveness was found to be an important factor for composite naming.