Bruce and Frowd 2007

Question 1

Aim:

Answer 1

To investigate the recognisability of internal (eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth) and external (head shape, hair and ears) features of the face using composites

Question 2

Exp. 1 Participants:

Answer 2

30 staff and students from Stirling University (15 males and 15 females) were paid £2 to take part in the experiment. They had a mean age of 29.2 years.

Question 3

Exp.1 Procedure:

Answer 3

This was an independent measures design with three conditions. All of the participants were given target photos of 10 celebrities and 40 composite images produced by E-fit, Profit, Sketch and EvoFit. The task was to match the target photos of celebrities with the correct composites.
Group One were given complete composites
Group Two were given composites of internal features
Group Three were given composites of external features

Participants were given an unlimited time to complete this task but once the composite was placed on the target photo, it could not be moved.

Question 4

Exp. 1 Results

Answer 4

31% of the composites that were complete and with external features werematched correctly. Only 19.5% of those with internal features were identified correctly.

Question 5

Exp. 2 Participants

Answer 5

48 undergraduates from Stirling University (21 males, 27 females) with a mean age of 21.4 years volunteered to take part in this study.

Question 6

Exp. 2 Procedure

Answer 6

The task in this experiment was to match a celebrity photo from an array with one of 40 composites shown to the participants. The photo arrays were split into easy (all very different) or hard (with distracter faces or ‘foils’). The participants were then split randomly into four groups:
Easy-internal features
Hard- internal features
Easy-external features
Hard-external features
The composites were presented one at a time along with the photo array of celebrities for participants to match.

Question 7

Exp. 2 Results`

Answer 7

Results: Composites of external features were identified much better than those of internal features (41.6%:28.4%)

Question 8

Conclusion

Answer 8

This research shows that external features are more recognisable than internal features. It also suggests that faces are processed more holistically than by focusing on specific features such as the nose for example.

Question 9

Strengths

Answer 9

• High ecological validity - Use real E- Fit software, and use familiar and non familiar celebrity faces - Concurrent validity, 3 different tests of which show similar conclusions demonstrating high internal reliability and validity
• Indepentdent measures reduces order effects and D.C
• Scientific
• Reductionist - High levels of control

Question 10

Weaknesses

Answer 10

• Low ecological validity
  1. Uses celebs in E1 and E2, lowering validity as individual differences come into play
  2. Low consequentiality
  3. Not victims
  4. Not police
• Sample - poor population validity - Students and museum visitors

Question 11

Exp. 3 pps.

Answer 11

8 staff and students from

Computer Science and Psychology

Question 12

Exp. 3 Procedure

Answer 12

Familiar and unfamiliar faces. Made 32 composites of 4 computer scientists and 4 psychology staff members. They then repeated the procedure of the experiment with 54 volunteers - Glasgow science museum and 26 psychology students from sterling uni.

Question 13

Exp. 3 results

Answer 13

Overall accuracy was 57.7%. Familiar faces was 50% and very unfamiliar was 48.7%. External 53.3 % and internal 32.6%

Question 14

Exp. 3 Conclusions

Answer 14

No difference in familiar and non familiar faces