Robertson, David J, Noyes, Eilidh, Dowsett, Andrew J et al. (2 more authors) (2016) Face Recognition by Metropolitan Police Super-Recognisers. PLoS ONE. e0150036. ISSN 1932-6203
Abstract
Face recognition is used to prove identity across a wide variety of settings. Despite this, research consistently shows that people are typically rather poor at matching faces to photos. Some professional groups, such as police and passport officers, have been shown to perform just as poorly as the general public on standard tests of face recognition. However, face recognition skills are subject to wide individual variation, with some people showing exceptional ability-a group that has come to be known as 'super-recognisers'. The Metropolitan Police Force (London) recruits 'super-recognisers' from within its ranks, for deployment on various identification tasks. Here we test four working super-recognisers from within this police force, and ask whether they are really able to perform at levels above control groups. We consistently find that the police 'super-recognisers' perform at well above normal levels on tests of unfamiliar and familiar face matching, with degraded as well as high quality images. Recruiting employees with high levels of skill in these areas, and allocating them to relevant tasks, is an efficient way to overcome some of the known difficulties associated with unfamiliar face recognition.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Authors 2016. This content is made available by the publisher under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence. This means that a user may copy, distribute and display the resource providing that they give credit. Users must adhere to the terms of the licence. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Psychology (York) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EUROPEAN COMMISSION 20120411 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (ESRC) ES/J022950/2 |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 29 Feb 2016 16:13 |
Last Modified: | 18 Dec 2024 00:05 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150036 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0150036 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:95798 |