Topic 2 - Dror - Top-down Biases

Question 1

What are the two ways prints can be analysed?

Answer 1

Bottom-up approaches and top-down approaches

Question 2

What is bottom-up approaches?

Answer 2

They use examination of the ridges and patterns of the fingerprints to identify the unique features of each print to see if they match

Question 3

What is a top-down approach?

Answer 3

They sue the expert’s previous experience and knowledge to make an assumption about the identity of the fingerprints

Question 4

Which way is more open to mistakes and what from?

Answer 4

Top down is more open to mistakes from aspects of the expert’s personality, emotional state and expectation

Question 5

What can happen when top-down processing is used?

Answer 5

It can reduce accuracy id analysis as cognitive bases can affect interpretation eg. Observer/expectancy bias, selective attention, conformity effect, need determination, perception or overconfidence bias

Question 6

What is need-determination perception/effect?

Answer 6

Desire to solve a particularly emotional crime may lead to high motivation to find a suspect and therefore errors being made about whether the print matches or not

Question 7

What is observer or expectancy bias?

Answer 7

When the expert expects there to be a match between prints because of information from an initial observer (eg. Police officer telling them they have a suspect who had been identified by a witness)

Question 8

What is conformity effect?

Answer 8

When asked to validate the opinion of another expert, they may be unconsciously biased to agree with the decision

Question 9

What is overconfidence bias?

Answer 9

Being an expert may make them overconfident about their own judgement and therefore overlooking evidence that rocks them wrong

Question 10

What is selective attention?

Answer 10

Filtering out ambiguous details and only focusing on the features that do match