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Does constructing a facial composite affect eyewitness memory? A research synthesis and meta-analysis

Authors:
Colin Tredoux at University of Cape Town
Colin Tredoux
Siegfried L. Sporer at Justus Liebig University Giessen
Siegfried L. Sporer
Annelies Vredeveldt at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Annelies Vredeveldt
Kate Kempen
Kate Kempen
Kate Kempen
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Abstract and Figures

Objectives We conducted a meta-analysis to assess whether the construction of facial composites affects witnesses’ lineup identification decisions.Methods We located 23 studies (56 effects, 2276 participants). We consider effects of constructing composites on (a) correct identifications, and (b) incorrect identifications, from target-present lineups, and (c) incorrect identifications from target-absent lineups. Log odds ratio effect sizes were entered into a random-effects meta-analysis. We also present novel signal detection theory analyses in an online supplement.ResultsThere were no significant negative effects of composite construction, but some weak evidence that composite construction reduced incorrect identifications in target-present lineups. Because effect sizes showed little hetereogeneity for any of the outcomes (after outlier removal), there were no moderator analyses. Results for SDT measures also showed no effects.Conclusions Empirical evidence suggests no effects of composite construction on identifications. We identify gaps in knowledge and make recommendations for more ecologically valid research.
Forest plot of LORs and their respective 95% CIs for correct identifications from target-present lineups (hits) of all individual studies as well as the weighted mean effect size with and without outliers. Negative values denote a decrease and positive values an increase in hits as a function of composite construction. Effects for which the confidence intervals included 0 were not significant. RE random effects
Forest plot of LORs and their respective 95% CIs for correct identifications from target-present lineups (hits) of all individual studies as well as the weighted mean effect size with and without outliers. Negative values denote a decrease and positive values an increase in hits as a function of composite construction. Effects for which the confidence intervals included 0 were not significant. RE random effects
… 
Funnel plot of LORs for correct identifications from target-present lineups (hits), suggesting under-reporting of positive effects and presence of outlying effects. Open circles are imputed data, following Duval and Tweedy (2000)
Funnel plot of LORs for correct identifications from target-present lineups (hits), suggesting under-reporting of positive effects and presence of outlying effects. Open circles are imputed data, following Duval and Tweedy (2000)
… 
Forest plot of LORs and their respective 95% CIs for foil identifications from target-present lineups (TP-foils), for all individual studies as well as the weighted mean effect size. Negative values denote a decrease and positive values an increase in foil identifications as a function of composite construction. Effects for which the confidence intervals included 0 were not significant
Forest plot of LORs and their respective 95% CIs for foil identifications from target-present lineups (TP-foils), for all individual studies as well as the weighted mean effect size. Negative values denote a decrease and positive values an increase in foil identifications as a function of composite construction. Effects for which the confidence intervals included 0 were not significant
… 
Funnel plot of LORs for foil identifications from target-present lineups (TP-foils). Open circles are imputed data, following Duval and Tweedy (2000)
Funnel plot of LORs for foil identifications from target-present lineups (TP-foils). Open circles are imputed data, following Duval and Tweedy (2000)
… 
Forest plot of LORs and their respective 95% CIs for incorrect identifications from target-absent lineups (TA-FAs), for all individual studies as well as the weighted mean effect size. Negative values denote a decrease and positive values an increase in false alarms as a function of composite construction. Effects for which the confidence intervals included 0 were not significant
+1
Forest plot of LORs and their respective 95% CIs for incorrect identifications from target-absent lineups (TA-FAs), for all individual studies as well as the weighted mean effect size. Negative values denote a decrease and positive values an increase in false alarms as a function of composite construction. Effects for which the confidence intervals included 0 were not significant
… 
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Does constructing a facial composite affect
eyewitness memory? A research synthesis
and meta-analysis
Colin G. Tredoux
1,2
&Siegfried L. Sporer
3
&Annelies Vredeveldt
1,4
&
Kate Kempen
1
&Alicia Nortje
1
#Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
Objectives We conducted a meta-analysis to assess whether the construction of facial
composites affects witnesses’lineup identification decisions.
Methods We located 23 studies (56 effects, 2276 participants). We consider effects of
constructing composites on (a) correct identifications, and (b) incorrect identifications, from
target-present lineups, and (c) incorrect identifications from target-absent lineups. Log odds
ratio effect sizes were entered into a random-effects meta-analysis. We also present novel
signal detection theory analyses in an online supplement.
Results There were no significant negativeeffects of composite construction, but some weak
evidence that composite construction reduced incorrect identifications in target-present
lineups. Because effect sizes showed little hetereogeneity for any of the outcomes ( after outlier
removal), there were no moder ator analyses. Results for SDT measures also showed no effects.
Conclusions Empirical evidence suggests no effects of composite construction on identifica-
tions. We identify gaps in knowledge and make recommendations for more ecologically valid
research.
Keywords Face composite .Eyewitness .Composite construction .Identification .Meta-
analysis
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-020-09432-z
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material,
which can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-020-09432-z
*Colin G. Tredoux
colin.tredoux@uct.ac.za
1
Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
2
CLLE, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UT2J, Toulouse, France
3
Department of Psychology and Sports Science, University of Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Strasse 10F,
Giessen, Germany
4
Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105,
Amsterdam 1081 HV, Netherlands
Published online: 6 June 2020
Journal of Experimental Criminology (2021) 17:713–741
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.

Supplementary resource (1)

Tredouxetal20IDE-Meta-CompositeConstructionEffect-SuppMat.pdf
Data
June 2020
Colin Tredoux · Siegfried L. Sporer · Annelies Vredeveldt · Kate Kempen · Alicia Nortje
... Conflicting results have been reported in the literature, including beneficial effects, no effects, and harmful effects of composite construction on later identification accuracy. It is therefore not surprising that a recent meta-analysis (Tredoux et al. 2021) found no significant overall effects of composite construction on identification performance. Further, they concluded that the current literature does not provide an adequate basis to test potential moderators, even though we might expect that the effects of constructing a composite might depend on the quality of the encoding, the quality of the composite, and the presence or absence of the perpetrator in the line-up, among other things. ...
... In conclusion, the findings of the narrative analysis (Sporer et al. 2020) and meta-analysis (Tredoux et al. 2021) are not in line with the strong claims published in news outlets and practitioner guidelines, which suggest that viewing or creating facial composites impairs memory. Based on the current body of scientific evidence, we are not yet able to formulate sound and empirically based policy recommendations about the ways in which viewing or creating a facial composite may impact memory. ...
Construction of Facial Composites from Eyewitness Memory
Chapter
  • Dec 2022
  • ADV EXP MED BIOL
Law enforcement agencies often rely on practical technologies to help witnesses and victims of crimes construct likenesses of faces from memory. These ‘face composites’ are typically circulated to law enforcement officers and made accessible to the public in the hope that someone familiar with the depicted person will recognise their likeness and thus provide the police with a suspect. We will review methods for constructing such likenesses from memory dating back to the portrait parlé of Alphonse Bertillon (Signaletic instructions including the theory and practice of anthropometrical identification. Werner Company, 1896) and the composite images of Francis Galton (Nature 18:97-100, 1878). We will also review more modern methods, ranging from the overlay techniques of Identi-Kit (McDonald, c 1959) and Photo-Fit (Penry J. The Police Journal 43:307, 1970) to feature-based computerised composite systems such as Identi-Kit 2000, FACES, and ProMat. Most early systems were based on the common-sense notion that sectioning a face is invertible: just as a face can be sectioned into components, so it can be recreated by arrangements of sections. This assumption appears to be unwarranted. The underlying problem with earlier face systems may have been the absence of a representational or computational theory. This led in the late 1990s to the development of the so-called third-generation holistic composite systems, which are based on underlying statistical and mathematical models of face images (e.g. ID [Tredoux et al. South African Computer Journal 2006:90–97, 2006], EvoFIT [Frowd CD, Hancock PJB, & Carson D. ACM Transactions on Applied Psychology (TAP) 1:1-21, 2004a], E-FIT [Gibson et al., International Conference on Visualisation, 146–151, 2003]). A special focus of the chapter will be on these newer technologies and other recent technological innovations. Our approach will be to review (i) the methods of operation, (ii) the techniques identified by psychologists and other researchers for improving the quality of information obtained from memory, and (iii) the empirical data on the effectiveness of these systems at representing faces from memory. We will consider related issues, too, including the question of whether face composites damage witness memory, and the ethics of face composition.KeywordsMemoryEyewitnessFace compositeFace likenessSynthetic face
View
... However, the finding that seeing a lookalike on social media reduces correct identification by over 30% is dramatic compared to other studies (Memon et al., 2011). Unlike some previous research (e.g., Davis et al., 2014), that has found composite construction leads to a higher rate of correct identifications compared to a control, our results were more similar to the majority of composite research (Pike G. E. et al., 2019;Tredoux et al., 2020) in finding no significant improvement in correct identifications between the Culprit and Control conditions. Jenkins et al. (2011) study could offer some insight into our results. ...
Digital Detectives: Websleuthing Reduces Eyewitness Identification Accuracy in Police Lineups
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2021
Eyewitnesses to crimes sometimes search for a culprit on social media before viewing a police lineup, but it is not known whether this affects subsequent lineup identification accuracy. The present online study was conducted to address this. Two hundred and eighty-five participants viewed a mock crime video, and after a 15–20 min delay either (i) viewed a mock social media site including the culprit, (ii) viewed a mock social media site including a lookalike, or (iii) completed a filler task. A week later, participants made an identification from a photo lineup. It was predicted that searching for a culprit on social media containing the lookalike (rather than the culprit) would reduce lineup identification accuracy. There was a significant association between social media exposure and lineup accuracy for the Target Present lineup (30% more of the participants who saw the lookalike on social media failed to positively identify the culprit than participants in the other conditions), but for the Target Absent lineup (which also included the lookalike) there was no significant association with lineup identification accuracy. The results suggest that if an eyewitness sees a lookalike (where they are expecting to see the culprit) when conducting a self-directed search on social media, they are less likely to subsequently identify the culprit in the formal ID procedure.
View
... A second way in which a composite may affect a later identification attempt is when the same Witness (A) first describes and helps in constructing a composite and subsequently participates in a lineup task (composite construction effect; see Figure 1). We will not address this issue here, since it has been reviewed in a recent meta-analysis by Tredoux et al., 2020). 2 Of course, more complex case constellations are conceivable, for example, when both Witnesses A and B (and/or additional witnesses) construct composites and are, or are not, exposed to each other's composites. ...
Does exposure to facial composites damage eyewitness memory? A comprehensive review
Article
Full-text available
Eyewitnesses often create face likenesses, which are published in the hope that potential suspects will be reported to the police. Witnesses exposed to another witness's composite, however, may be positively or negatively influenced by such composites. A good likeness may facilitate identification, but a bad likeness that resembles an innocent suspect may lead to a misidentification (“mix‐up”). We offer a theoretical review, and comprehensively summarize extant studies descriptively because most studies did not report enough statistical details to warrant a formal meta‐analysis. Some studies showed negative exposure effects, particularly when the innocent suspect and composite shared misleading features. Studies that exposed witnesses to “good” composites reported positive or no effects on lineup performance, and some highly powered studies also showed no effect. We outline suggestions for further investigations under ecologically valid conditions. We also make recommendations for investigative practice, and the evaluation of identification evidence by fact finders or courts.
View
When Face Recognition Goes Wrong
Book
Full-text available
  • Sep 2024
When Face Recognition Goes Wrong explores the myriad ways that humans and machines make mistakes in facial recognition. Adopting a critical stance throughout, the book explores why and how humans and machines make mistakes, covering topics including racial and gender biases, neuropsychological disorders, and widespread algorithm problems. The book features personal anecdotes alongside real-world examples to showcase the often life-changing consequences of facial recognition going wrong. These range from problems with everyday social interactions through to eyewitness identification leading to miscarriages of justice and border control passport verification. Concluding with a look to the future of facial recognition, the author asks the world’s leading experts what are the big questions that still need to be answered, and can we train humans and machines to be super recognisers? This book is a must-read for anyone interested in facial recognition, or in psychology, criminal justice and law.
View
Composite communication: how dissemination of facial composites in the media affects police investigations
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2022
When looking for a crime suspect, the police may ask an eyewitness to construct a visual likeness (‘facial composite’) of the perpetrator, to be distributed to the public via newspaper articles, television programmes, or social media. The dissemination of facial composites can have a major impact on police investigations. It often results in a deluge of tips and could potentially influence the memory of other eyewitnesses in the case. In this article, we review research on how to interview eyewitnesses for the optimal construction of facial composites from memory. We discuss types of composite systems and their effectiveness, including the ‘gold standard’ of measuring effectiveness. We compare the question posed to the public when a facial composite is disseminated to face-matching tasks faced by immigration officials and store clerks, but then with the added difficulty of the image being a composite of unknown resemblance to the target. We also discuss the potential danger of composites contaminating other eyewitnesses’ memory, highlighting the lessons learnt from research on unconscious transference. We pose several challenges for future researchers and practitioners. We conclude that evidence-based guidance is lacking to inform the police on whether and how to use facial composites in their investigations.
View
The impact of weapons and unusual objects on the construction of facial composites
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2022
The presence of a weapon in the perpetration of a crime can impede an observer’s ability to describe and/or recognise the person responsible. In the current experiment, we explore whether weapons when present at encoding of a target identity interfere with the construction of a facial composite. Participants encoded an unfamiliar target face seen either on its own or paired with a knife. Encoding duration (10 or 30 s) was also manipulated. The following day, participants recalled the face and constructed a composite of it using a holistic system (EvoFIT). Correct naming of the participants’ composites was found to reduce reliably when target faces were paired with the weapon at 10 s but not at 30 s. These data suggest that the presence of a weapon reduces the effectiveness of facial composites following a short encoding duration. Implications for theory and police practice are discussed.
View
Four Heads Are Better Than One: Combining Face Composites Yields Improvements in Face Likeness
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2002
Four participants constructed face composites, of familiar and unfamiliar targets, using Pro-Fit, with reference images present or from memory. The “mean” of all 4 composites, created by morphing (4-morph) was rated as a better likeness than individual composites on average and was as good as the best individual likeness. When participants attempted to identify targets from line-ups, 4-morphs again performed as well as the best individual composite. In a second experiment, participants familiar with target women attempted to identify composites, and the trend showed better recognition from multiple composites, whether combined or shown together. In a line-up task with unfamiliar participants, 4-morphs produced most correct choices and fewest false positives from target-absent or target-present arrays. These results have practical implications for the way evidence from different witnesses is used in police investigations.
View
Does exposure to facial composites damage eyewitness memory? A comprehensive review
Article
Full-text available
Eyewitnesses often create face likenesses, which are published in the hope that potential suspects will be reported to the police. Witnesses exposed to another witness's composite, however, may be positively or negatively influenced by such composites. A good likeness may facilitate identification, but a bad likeness that resembles an innocent suspect may lead to a misidentification (“mix‐up”). We offer a theoretical review, and comprehensively summarize extant studies descriptively because most studies did not report enough statistical details to warrant a formal meta‐analysis. Some studies showed negative exposure effects, particularly when the innocent suspect and composite shared misleading features. Studies that exposed witnesses to “good” composites reported positive or no effects on lineup performance, and some highly powered studies also showed no effect. We outline suggestions for further investigations under ecologically valid conditions. We also make recommendations for investigative practice, and the evaluation of identification evidence by fact finders or courts.
View
Policy and Procedure Recommendations for the Collection and Preservation of Eyewitness Identification Evidence
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2020
Objective: The Executive Committee of the American Psychology-Law Society (Division 41 of the American Psychological Association) appointed a subcommittee to update the influential 1998 scientific review paper on guidelines for eyewitness identification procedures. Method: This was a collaborative effort by six senior eyewitness researchers, who all participated in the writing process. Feedback from members of AP-LS and the legal communities was solicited over an 18-month period. Results: The results yielded nine recommendations for planning, designing, and conducting eyewitness identification procedures. Four of the recommendations were from the 1998 article and concerned the selection of lineup fillers, prelineup instructions to witnesses, the use of double-blind procedures, and collection of a confidence statement. The additional five recommendations concern the need for law enforcement to conduct a prelineup interview of the witness, the need for evidence-based suspicion before conducting an identification procedure, video-recording of the entire procedure, avoiding repeated identification attempts with the same witness and same suspect, and avoiding the use of showups when possible and improving how showups are conducted when they are necessary. Conclusions: The reliability and integrity of eyewitness identification evidence is highly dependent on the procedures used by law enforcement for collecting and preserving the eyewitness evidence. These nine recommendations can advance the reliability and integrity of the evidence.
View
Constructing Identifiable Composite Faces: The Importance of Cognitive Alignment of Interview and Construction Procedure
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2019
We investigated the impact of congruency between the witness interview and method used to construct a composite face. Experiment 1, using a typical feature-by-feature composite method, revealed that aligning cognitive processes during interview and face construction enhanced the effectiveness of composites compared with composites produced following unaligned (incongruent) procedures. Experiment 2 revealed that incorporating character judgments in the witness interview substantially enhanced identification of feature-based composites when constructing the central (internal) features first, suggesting that such judgments focus attention on this region of the face. Experiment 3 explored alignment of processes using an approach based on an evolutionary algorithm, a method requiring witnesses to create a composite by selecting from arrays based on the eye-region. A combination of character judgments, first for the whole face and then for the eye region, led to best-identified composites. Overall, results indicate that more effective composites are produced when both interview and construction procedures are aligned cognitively. Results are discussed with relevance to the theory of transfer-appropriate processing (Morris, Bransford, & Franks, 1977). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
View
Asking an eyewitness to predict their later lineup performance could harm the confidence–accuracy relationship
Article
Full-text available
Few studies have investigated eyewitnesses' ability to predict their later lineup performance, known as predecision confidence. We applied calibration analysis in two experiments comparing predecision confidence (immediately after encoding but prior to a lineup) to postdecision confidence (immediately after a lineup) to determine which produces a superior relationship with lineup decision accuracy. Experiment 1 (N = 177) featured a multiple‐block lineup recognition paradigm featuring several targets and lineups; Experiment 2 featured an eyewitness identification paradigm with a mock‐crime video and a single lineup for each participant (N = 855). Across both experiments, postdecision confidence discriminated well between correct and incorrect lineup decisions, but predecision confidence was a poor predictor of accuracy. Moreover, simply asking for predecision confidence weakened the postdecision confidence–accuracy relationship. This implies that police should exercise caution when interviewing eyewitnesses, as they should not be asked to predict their ability to make an accurate lineup decision.
View
Police Lineups of the Future?
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2019
Problems associated with eyewitness identification decisions have long been highlighted by memory researchers (e.g., Loftus, 1979), with overwhelming evidence that witnesses can err, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Guided by the rationale that witnesses have access to potentially probative memorial information not captured by the traditional categorical lineup responses, an alternative procedure was examined in 6 experiments with adult (N = 1,669) and child (N = 273) witnesses. Instead of witnesses being asked to identify the offender from the lineup, they rated their confidence in the match between the offender and each lineup member and then variations in the maximum (max) confidence values assigned (i.e., the highest rated lineup members) were examined. Specifically, we evaluated how well max confidence values predicted suspect guilt or innocence. When suspects (guilty or innocent) in a lineup received the max confidence rating, the probability of guilt increased with the max. When the suspect received a rating lower than the max, they were generally more likely to be innocent. Max confidence patterns also predicted guilt where a traditional positive identification would have been unlikely: for example, when the max was low, when the witness gave the max to multiple lineup members, or when a filler received the max but the suspect also received a high rating. The data indicate that witnesses have access to probative memorial information often not captured by the traditional lineup responses when identifying someone or rejecting the lineup. Guidelines for the use and interpretation of this theoretically informed futuristic alternative to existing lineup procedures are provided.
View
The Effect of Facial Composite Construction on Eyewitness Identification Accuracy in an Ecologically Valid Paradigm
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2018
  • CRIM JUSTICE BEHAV
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.
View
Adjusting the Focus of Attention: Helping Witnesses to Evolve a More Identifiable Composite
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2017
When perceiving faces under normal circumstances, the focus of attention is likely to be on the upper (e.g., hair, eyes) than lower (e.g., mouth, chin) facial half (Pellicano, Rhodes, & Peters, 2006). If such a bias were to extend to face construction, then it may hinder the effectiveness of forensic evidence collected from witnesses and victims of crime. In Experiment 1, participants constructed a single face using the EvoFIT holistic (police) composite system 24 hours after having seen an unfamiliar target identity. When constructing the face, participants were asked to select items from face arrays based on the whole face, or for upper and lower facial halves separately; these faces were presented in arrays either intact or horizontally-misaligned (Young, Hellawell, & Hay, 1987), and with external features (hair, ears, neck) present or absent. More-identifiable composites were predicted from (i) selection of separate facial halves (cf. currently-used whole-face selection), (ii) presence of horizontal misalignment and (iii) absence of external features. Experiment 2 used the same basic design but participants were requested to select for (i) upper-face half during evolution, (ii) the same as (i) but also for subsequent adjustments of the face, and (iii) overall face (Control). The composites constructed in both experiments were named and rated for likeness. Experiment 1 unexpectedly revealed that the Control group produced the highest-named composites. In Experiment 2, upper face selection during the evolution stage produced more-effective composites. In terms of practical implications, for the EvoFIT composite system, and potentially for other holistic systems, witnesses should be instructed to select faces for the upper facial half during evolution, to maximise subsequent identification of their composites.
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