Brown, C orcid.org/0000-0001-9697-4878, Portch, E, Skelton, FC et al. (5 more authors) (2019) The impact of external facial features on the construction of facial composites. Ergonomics, 62 (4). pp. 575-592. ISSN 0014-0139
Abstract
Witnesses may construct a composite face of a perpetrator using a computerised interface. Police practitioners guide witnesses through this unusual process, the goal being to produce an identifiable image. However, any changes a perpetrator makes to their external facial-features may interfere with this process. In Experiment 1, participants constructed a composite using a holistic interface one day after target encoding. Target faces were unaltered, or had altered external-features: (i) changed hair, (ii) external-features removed or (iii) naturally-concealed external-features (hair, ears, face-shape occluded by a hooded top). These manipulations produced composites with more error-prone internal-features: participants’ familiar with a target’s unaltered appearance less often provided a correct name. Experiment 2 applied external-feature alterations to composites of unaltered targets; although whole-face composites contained less error-prone internal-features, identification was impaired. Experiment 3 replicated negative effects of changing target hair on construction and tested a practical solution: selectively concealing hair and eyes improved identification.
Practitioner Summary: The research indicates that when a target identity disguises or changes hair, this can lead to a witness (or victim) constructing a composite that is less readily identified. We assess a practical method to overcome this forensic issue.
Abbreviation: GEE: Generalized Estimating Equations
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This paper is protected by copyright. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Ergonomics on 07 Dec 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00140139.2018.1556816. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | facial composite; altered external-features; hair; holistic face processing; witness |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 13 Dec 2018 12:11 |
Last Modified: | 08 Dec 2019 01:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/00140139.2018.1556816 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:139965 |