Improving Identity Matching for Masked Faces: The Benefit of Isolated Facial Features
Masked perpetrators are difficult to recognize. In two experiments, we investigated ways of impro... more Masked perpetrators are difficult to recognize. In two experiments, we investigated ways of improving identity matching for masked perpetrators. Specifically, we evaluated the effectiveness of matching isolated facial features, namely the eyes (Experiment 1) and the mouth (Experiment 2). Participants viewed pairs of faces and determined whether they belonged to the same person or different people. In congruent sets, participants matched a full-face image to another full-face image or a masked image to an isolated feature. In incongruent sets, participants matched a full-face image to an image of the eyes or the mouth only or to a masked image. Matching accuracy was significantly better in congruent than incongruent sets and more so for image pairs that included isolated features. Overall, the two experiments showed that utilizing isolated facial features, such as the eyes or mouth, can be a valuable strategy for enhancing identity matching when dealing with masked perpetrators.
Although perpetrators often wear masks and veils to conceal parts of their faces, witnesses often... more Although perpetrators often wear masks and veils to conceal parts of their faces, witnesses often make identifications from photo lineups that depict the full face of their members. However, presenting a familiar feature in an otherwise unfamiliar face can diverge witnesses' attention away from the relevant feature and, in turn, disrupt recognition. Therefore, in cases of masked perpetrators presenting only the encoded feature in isolation might help lineup identification accuracy. In two experiments, we investigated this notion with disguises that rendered visible only the eyes. Participants watched a staged crime during which only the eyes of the targets were visible and made identification decisions from target-present and target-absent lineups that included photos either of the eyes alone (in isolation, blurred face, masked face) or of the full-face. Despite the low identification accuracy, our findings suggest that seeing the encoded feature in isolation can be beneficial for identification accuracy. These findings have implications for the way we construct lineups for masked perpetrators, and deepen our understanding of face processing.
This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been th... more This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as
A common belief in police officers is that guilty suspects' statements are less consistent than i... more A common belief in police officers is that guilty suspects' statements are less consistent than innocent suspects'. This could leave guilty suspects more vulnerable to missing inconsistencies externally induced into their alibis. Source monitoring and cognitive load approaches suggest that untruthfulness rather than guilt should predict proneness to such deception. Manipulating both guilt and truthfulness, we tested these opposing hypotheses. One hundred twenty-six participants were accused of stealing gift vouchers after wandering about a building. When interviewed several days later, participants rarely detected alterations in their alibi (23-29%). Unexpectedly, for one of three detection measures, untruthful participants detected more manipulations than did truthful participants. Guilt did not moderate detection rates. Manipulations were equally harmful for guilty and innocent suspects, and blindness to the alibi manipulations was not useful for discriminating innocent from guilty suspects. Because blindness effects are easy to elicit in the legal context, techniques that externally induce inconsistencies should be avoided.
Choice blindness for identification decisions refers to the inability of eyewitnesses to detect t... more Choice blindness for identification decisions refers to the inability of eyewitnesses to detect that an originally recognized target was swapped for a non-identified lineup member. The robustness of the effect calls for measures that can prevent or reduce the negative consequences of choice blindness manipulations. Here, we investigated whether pre-and post-warnings given to participants about the possibility of mistakes reduces choice blindness for identification decisions. Participants (N = 119) were presented with identifications they never made and were asked to justify those decisions. Either before or after the presentation of the manipulated identification outcome, participants were or were not warned about the possibility of mistakes in the identification process. Although warnings were not sufficient to reduce choice blindness for identification decisions they provided a time-related detection advantage. Pre-warned participants questioned the legitimacy of the manipulated outcome sooner (i.e., concurrent detection) than participants in other conditions. Hence, pre-warnings can help detect mistakes in the identification procedure at an earlier stage, before they contaminate the memory of the witness and other pieces of evidence. From a theoretical stance, our findings attest to the strength of self-suggestion and indicate that choice blindness effects are deeply rooted in cognition.
In vast contrast to the multitude of lineup studies that report on the link between decision time... more In vast contrast to the multitude of lineup studies that report on the link between decision time, confidence, and identification accuracy, only a few studies looked at these associations for showups, with results varying widely across studies. We therefore set out to test the individual and combined value of decision time and post-decision confidence for diagnosing the accuracy of positive showup decisions using confidence-accuracy characteristic curves and Bayesian analyses. Three-hundred-eighty-four participants viewed a stimulus event and were subsequently presented with two showups which could be target-present or target-absent. As expected, we found a negative decision time-accuracy and a positive post-decision confidence-accuracy correlation for showup selections. Confidence-accuracy characteristic curves demonstrated the expected additive effect of combining both postdictors. Likewise, Bayesian analyses, taking into account all possible target-presence base rate values showed that fast and confident identification decisions were more diagnostic than slow or less confident decisions, with the combination of both being most diagnostic for postdicting accurate and inaccurate decisions. The postdictive value of decision time and post-decision confidence was higher when the prior probability that the suspect is the perpetrator was high compared to when the prior probability that the suspect is the perpetrator was low. The frequent use of showups in practice emphasizes the importance of these findings for court proceedings. Overall, these findings support the idea that courts should have most trust in showup identifications that were made fast and confidently, and least in showup identifications that were made slowly and with low confidence.
People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the ... more People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:
Zeitschrift Fur Psychologie-journal of Psychology, Jul 1, 2020
People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the ... more People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:
Alternative Identification Procedures for Masked Perpetrators - Lower part of the face
The aim of the present project is to empirically investigate selective-facial-feature presentatio... more The aim of the present project is to empirically investigate selective-facial-feature presentation methods, focusing on cases where only the lower half of the targets face was visible
Pre-registration of study that aims to examine the influence of hindsight bias on both procedural... more Pre-registration of study that aims to examine the influence of hindsight bias on both procedural and substantive judicial decisions.
Eyewitnesses' blindness for changes in one's own- and other-race lineup identification
In this study, we examine how the other-race effect (ORE) impacts eyewitnesses' ability to de... more In this study, we examine how the other-race effect (ORE) impacts eyewitnesses' ability to detect changes in their own identification decisions. We hypothesized that participants who perform other- compared with own-race identifications would be less likely to detect when their identification decision is manipulated. To test this hypothesis, Black (n=40) and White African (n=43), as well as Black (n=22) and White European (n=40) participants, were asked to identify Caucasian targets. Participants watched four mock crime films and made several identifications from simultaneous target-present and target-absent lineups. Forty-eight hours later, participants had to justify their identification decisions for the perpetrators. For two of the four identifications participants were confronted with a non-previously identified lineup member. Next to a significant ORE, we found that participants who made other-race identifications were less likely to detect the manipulations (27%) than par...
Although perpetrators often wear masks and veils to conceal parts of their faces, witnesses often... more Although perpetrators often wear masks and veils to conceal parts of their faces, witnesses often make identifications from photo lineups that depict the full face of their members. However, presenting a familiar feature in an otherwise unfamiliar face can diverge witnesses’ attention away from the relevant feature and, in turn, disrupt recognition. Therefore, in cases of masked perpetrators presenting only the encoded feature in isolation might help lineup identification accuracy. In two experiments, we investigated this notion with disguises that rendered visible only the eyes. Participants watched a staged crime during which only the eyes of the targets were visible and made identification decisions from target-present and target-absent lineups that included photos either of the eyes alone (in isolation, blurred face, masked face) or of the full-face. Despite the low identification accuracy, our findings suggest that seeing the encoded feature in isolation can be beneficial for i...
In two experiments we tested the choice blindness phenomenon in adolescents aged 11–16 years (Exp... more In two experiments we tested the choice blindness phenomenon in adolescents aged 11–16 years (Experiment 1, N = 87) and children aged 7–10 years (Experiment 2, N = 117) for the first time. Analogous to previously reported findings with adult participants, we expected to replicate the robust effect in these age groups. Furthermore, we investigated the hypothesis that self-relevance of choices, defined as the extent to which the self is implicated in a choice, moderates the choice blindness effect in adolescents and children. To this end, we directly compared high and low self-relevance conditions. As expected, the choice blindness effect was robust across age groups. Little support was found for the idea that self-relevance moderates the choice blindness effect. Specifically, no effect of self-relevance on choice blindness was found in adolescents, while the findings in the child sample were inconsistent. Different possible interpretations of the results as well as the possible role ...
For most of us it is difficult to imagine that we could decide to buy a v-neck sweater and end up... more For most of us it is difficult to imagine that we could decide to buy a v-neck sweater and end up with round-neck collar without even noticing the difference. If this happened in a wide variety of situations, it would mean that we are often not fully aware of the decisions we make. According to researchers studying a phenomenon called choice blindness, this is precisely the case. Numerous studies have shown that we often fail to detect changes in our decisions (e.g., which of two jams we prefer) when that choice is secretly changed. In the present article, we examine when and why this phenomenon occurs, as well its implications for various real-world settings.
Improving Identity Matching for Masked Faces: The Benefit of Isolated Facial Features
Masked perpetrators are difficult to recognize. In two experiments, we investigated ways of impro... more Masked perpetrators are difficult to recognize. In two experiments, we investigated ways of improving identity matching for masked perpetrators. Specifically, we evaluated the effectiveness of matching isolated facial features, namely the eyes (Experiment 1) and the mouth (Experiment 2). Participants viewed pairs of faces and determined whether they belonged to the same person or different people. In congruent sets, participants matched a full-face image to another full-face image or a masked image to an isolated feature. In incongruent sets, participants matched a full-face image to an image of the eyes or the mouth only or to a masked image. Matching accuracy was significantly better in congruent than incongruent sets and more so for image pairs that included isolated features. Overall, the two experiments showed that utilizing isolated facial features, such as the eyes or mouth, can be a valuable strategy for enhancing identity matching when dealing with masked perpetrators.
Although perpetrators often wear masks and veils to conceal parts of their faces, witnesses often... more Although perpetrators often wear masks and veils to conceal parts of their faces, witnesses often make identifications from photo lineups that depict the full face of their members. However, presenting a familiar feature in an otherwise unfamiliar face can diverge witnesses' attention away from the relevant feature and, in turn, disrupt recognition. Therefore, in cases of masked perpetrators presenting only the encoded feature in isolation might help lineup identification accuracy. In two experiments, we investigated this notion with disguises that rendered visible only the eyes. Participants watched a staged crime during which only the eyes of the targets were visible and made identification decisions from target-present and target-absent lineups that included photos either of the eyes alone (in isolation, blurred face, masked face) or of the full-face. Despite the low identification accuracy, our findings suggest that seeing the encoded feature in isolation can be beneficial for identification accuracy. These findings have implications for the way we construct lineups for masked perpetrators, and deepen our understanding of face processing.
This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been th... more This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as
A common belief in police officers is that guilty suspects' statements are less consistent than i... more A common belief in police officers is that guilty suspects' statements are less consistent than innocent suspects'. This could leave guilty suspects more vulnerable to missing inconsistencies externally induced into their alibis. Source monitoring and cognitive load approaches suggest that untruthfulness rather than guilt should predict proneness to such deception. Manipulating both guilt and truthfulness, we tested these opposing hypotheses. One hundred twenty-six participants were accused of stealing gift vouchers after wandering about a building. When interviewed several days later, participants rarely detected alterations in their alibi (23-29%). Unexpectedly, for one of three detection measures, untruthful participants detected more manipulations than did truthful participants. Guilt did not moderate detection rates. Manipulations were equally harmful for guilty and innocent suspects, and blindness to the alibi manipulations was not useful for discriminating innocent from guilty suspects. Because blindness effects are easy to elicit in the legal context, techniques that externally induce inconsistencies should be avoided.
Choice blindness for identification decisions refers to the inability of eyewitnesses to detect t... more Choice blindness for identification decisions refers to the inability of eyewitnesses to detect that an originally recognized target was swapped for a non-identified lineup member. The robustness of the effect calls for measures that can prevent or reduce the negative consequences of choice blindness manipulations. Here, we investigated whether pre-and post-warnings given to participants about the possibility of mistakes reduces choice blindness for identification decisions. Participants (N = 119) were presented with identifications they never made and were asked to justify those decisions. Either before or after the presentation of the manipulated identification outcome, participants were or were not warned about the possibility of mistakes in the identification process. Although warnings were not sufficient to reduce choice blindness for identification decisions they provided a time-related detection advantage. Pre-warned participants questioned the legitimacy of the manipulated outcome sooner (i.e., concurrent detection) than participants in other conditions. Hence, pre-warnings can help detect mistakes in the identification procedure at an earlier stage, before they contaminate the memory of the witness and other pieces of evidence. From a theoretical stance, our findings attest to the strength of self-suggestion and indicate that choice blindness effects are deeply rooted in cognition.
In vast contrast to the multitude of lineup studies that report on the link between decision time... more In vast contrast to the multitude of lineup studies that report on the link between decision time, confidence, and identification accuracy, only a few studies looked at these associations for showups, with results varying widely across studies. We therefore set out to test the individual and combined value of decision time and post-decision confidence for diagnosing the accuracy of positive showup decisions using confidence-accuracy characteristic curves and Bayesian analyses. Three-hundred-eighty-four participants viewed a stimulus event and were subsequently presented with two showups which could be target-present or target-absent. As expected, we found a negative decision time-accuracy and a positive post-decision confidence-accuracy correlation for showup selections. Confidence-accuracy characteristic curves demonstrated the expected additive effect of combining both postdictors. Likewise, Bayesian analyses, taking into account all possible target-presence base rate values showed that fast and confident identification decisions were more diagnostic than slow or less confident decisions, with the combination of both being most diagnostic for postdicting accurate and inaccurate decisions. The postdictive value of decision time and post-decision confidence was higher when the prior probability that the suspect is the perpetrator was high compared to when the prior probability that the suspect is the perpetrator was low. The frequent use of showups in practice emphasizes the importance of these findings for court proceedings. Overall, these findings support the idea that courts should have most trust in showup identifications that were made fast and confidently, and least in showup identifications that were made slowly and with low confidence.
People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the ... more People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:
Zeitschrift Fur Psychologie-journal of Psychology, Jul 1, 2020
People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the ... more People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:
Alternative Identification Procedures for Masked Perpetrators - Lower part of the face
The aim of the present project is to empirically investigate selective-facial-feature presentatio... more The aim of the present project is to empirically investigate selective-facial-feature presentation methods, focusing on cases where only the lower half of the targets face was visible
Pre-registration of study that aims to examine the influence of hindsight bias on both procedural... more Pre-registration of study that aims to examine the influence of hindsight bias on both procedural and substantive judicial decisions.
Eyewitnesses' blindness for changes in one's own- and other-race lineup identification
In this study, we examine how the other-race effect (ORE) impacts eyewitnesses' ability to de... more In this study, we examine how the other-race effect (ORE) impacts eyewitnesses' ability to detect changes in their own identification decisions. We hypothesized that participants who perform other- compared with own-race identifications would be less likely to detect when their identification decision is manipulated. To test this hypothesis, Black (n=40) and White African (n=43), as well as Black (n=22) and White European (n=40) participants, were asked to identify Caucasian targets. Participants watched four mock crime films and made several identifications from simultaneous target-present and target-absent lineups. Forty-eight hours later, participants had to justify their identification decisions for the perpetrators. For two of the four identifications participants were confronted with a non-previously identified lineup member. Next to a significant ORE, we found that participants who made other-race identifications were less likely to detect the manipulations (27%) than par...
Although perpetrators often wear masks and veils to conceal parts of their faces, witnesses often... more Although perpetrators often wear masks and veils to conceal parts of their faces, witnesses often make identifications from photo lineups that depict the full face of their members. However, presenting a familiar feature in an otherwise unfamiliar face can diverge witnesses’ attention away from the relevant feature and, in turn, disrupt recognition. Therefore, in cases of masked perpetrators presenting only the encoded feature in isolation might help lineup identification accuracy. In two experiments, we investigated this notion with disguises that rendered visible only the eyes. Participants watched a staged crime during which only the eyes of the targets were visible and made identification decisions from target-present and target-absent lineups that included photos either of the eyes alone (in isolation, blurred face, masked face) or of the full-face. Despite the low identification accuracy, our findings suggest that seeing the encoded feature in isolation can be beneficial for i...
In two experiments we tested the choice blindness phenomenon in adolescents aged 11–16 years (Exp... more In two experiments we tested the choice blindness phenomenon in adolescents aged 11–16 years (Experiment 1, N = 87) and children aged 7–10 years (Experiment 2, N = 117) for the first time. Analogous to previously reported findings with adult participants, we expected to replicate the robust effect in these age groups. Furthermore, we investigated the hypothesis that self-relevance of choices, defined as the extent to which the self is implicated in a choice, moderates the choice blindness effect in adolescents and children. To this end, we directly compared high and low self-relevance conditions. As expected, the choice blindness effect was robust across age groups. Little support was found for the idea that self-relevance moderates the choice blindness effect. Specifically, no effect of self-relevance on choice blindness was found in adolescents, while the findings in the child sample were inconsistent. Different possible interpretations of the results as well as the possible role ...
For most of us it is difficult to imagine that we could decide to buy a v-neck sweater and end up... more For most of us it is difficult to imagine that we could decide to buy a v-neck sweater and end up with round-neck collar without even noticing the difference. If this happened in a wide variety of situations, it would mean that we are often not fully aware of the decisions we make. According to researchers studying a phenomenon called choice blindness, this is precisely the case. Numerous studies have shown that we often fail to detect changes in our decisions (e.g., which of two jams we prefer) when that choice is secretly changed. In the present article, we examine when and why this phenomenon occurs, as well its implications for various real-world settings.
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