Bruce et al 2007 - Interviewing Witnesses - internal/external features

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To investigate the relative importance of external and internal features of a facial composite.

Question 2

Method

Answer 2

3 lab experiments

Question 3

Participants

Answer 3

study 1 - 30 staff and students from stirling uni
study 2 - 48 undergraduates from stirling uni
study 3 - 8 staff and students, computer science and psychology.

Question 4

procedure

Answer 4

study 1

-stimuli were 10 celebrity photos and 50 composites produced with e-fit.
-3 sets of composites used: complete, internal and external.
participants put in one of 3 conditions and asked to match celebrity with composite.

study 2

• used a photo array with distractor faces, the faces were made either easy or hard to identify.
• participants then had to match composites as they did before.

study 3 - familiar and unfamiliar faces

8 staff and students from computer science and psychology at the uni were paid to create 32 composites of familiar and unfamiliar faces.
-54 members of the public and 26 students repeated the procedure of study 1

Question 5

Results

Answer 5

Study 1

complete and external composites - 35% correct
internal composites - 19.5% correct

study 2

external - 42% correct
internal - 24% correct

study 3

overall accuracy - 57.7%
familiar - 50% , unfamiliar - 48.7%
external composites - 53.3%
internal composites - 32.6%
complete composites - 61.1%

Question 6

Conclusions

Answer 6

Study 1 and 2

This could indicate that there is something about internal features of a face which do not work well when trying to create a reconstruction of the face, this effect is true even on familiar faces shedding doubt on previous research.

Study 3

The results of this study suggest that there is something about the internal features of a face which impair cognitive reconstruction of the face even when the face is familiar.