Interference and face recall interviews

1. Interference and face recall interviews Dr Charlie Frowd School of Psychology University of Central Lancashire Preston UK Steve Fields Psychology HM Prison Peterhead UK www.uclan.ac.uk/cfrowd

4. ‘Enhanced’ Cognitive Interview • Set of techniques to help a person recall the face as completely and accurately as possible. A typical interview for an eyewitness to recall details of face... • Rapport building • Mental reinstatement of context • Free recall of face • ... Using their own words. Own time. • ... Report everything. Not guess. • ... Interviewer does not interrupt • (Repeated free recall of face) • Cued recall of face • (Change of perspective)

5. Verbal interference • Recall of an unfamiliar face (or other such complex object) can interfere with recognition of a face • Verbal overshadowing effect (VOE) • Schooler and Engstler-Schooler, 1990 • VOE is more likely after elaborative recall • Not all researchers have replicated it • Meissner and Brigham (2001) meta analysis • Describing any face causes the effect • —suggests a process not item-specific effect • Avoided by articulatory suppression during target exposure • VOE decays with time • —’released’. • About 30 mins (Finger & Pezdek, 1999) • For traditional composite construction... • ... Elaborative recall stage immediately followed by a recognition task: selection of individual facial features to build a face • ... VOE is likely => Composite quality may not be optimal

6. Questions • Does traditional face construction evoke a VOE? • Selection of eyes, nose, mouth, etc. • If so... • ... what is the impact on the quality of a person’s composite? • ... what way(s) might this be avoided or overcome? • ... is this effect present for other composite methods? • Frowd, C.D. and Fields, S. (2010). Verbal overshadowing interference with facial composite production. Psychology, Crime and Law, DOI: 10.1080/10683161003623264

7. Experimental aims • “To attempt to show that a VOE is present with face construction” • ... Ask people to construct a composite immediately after having described it—'normal' • ... Ask other people to construct a composite without describing the face at all—'no-description‘ • ... If VOE: no-description interview should promote better quality composites than from normal • Attempt to remove VOE. Ask a third group of participants to construct the face 30 minutes after having described it in detail—'delay'. This should produce a ‘release’ from VOE. • ... If VOE: delay should promote better composites than normal

8. People who helped in the research • Two groups of people (participants) • ... Build the composite faces • ... Try to name the composites • These people were staff and students at the University of Coventry

9. Overview of construction procedure • Stimuli were 10 photos of international-level footballers • Non-football fans were ‘witnesses’ and looked a face they did not recognise for 10 seconds • Two days later, each person made a single composite • ... A. After recalling the face in detail—normal • ... B. After not describing the face—no-description • ... C. Thirty minutes after having described it—delay • Ten composites were produced using the PRO-fit feature system in each condition, 30 in total. (30 participants.)

11. Tony Adams Normal No-description Delay

12. Composite evaluation • Asked 24 football fans to name the comps • ... Very-poor correct naming, < 2% in each cell of the design • Asked a second group of 18 people to name given a list of the 10 names from which to select • ... ‘Constrained’ naming, M ~ 50%

13. Results • VOE (no recall) • VOE (release)

14. Overview • With ‘normal’ face construction detailed face recall is followed by a recognition task, selection of individual facial features • —composites quality may be reduced due to VOE • Demonstrated that face recall reduces identifiability of composites • no-description > normal • Demonstrated that VOE can be removed using 30 minute delay between face recall and face construction • delay > normal • => It would be sensible to use such a delay with real eyewitnesses • (Also provided further evidence that feature systems produce very-poor quality composites with construction 2 days after seeing a target face.) • VOE can be overcome using whole-face attribution [..]

15. Holistic-Cognitive Interview (H-CI) • Frowd, C.D., Bruce, V., Smith, A., & Hancock, P.J.B. (2008). Improving the quality of facial composites using a holistic cognitive interview. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 14, 276 – 287. • Detailed face recall (Cognitive) interview • Holistic Interview (5 min) • … Think about the personality of the face • Free recall • … Seven judgements about the face • Cued recall • Intelligence, friendliness, kindness, selfishness, arrogance, distinctiveness and aggressiveness, … • Low, medium or high

16. Examples CI H-CI

17. Naming

18. Overview • With ‘normal’ face construction detailed face recall is followed by a recognition task, selection of individual facial features • —composites quality may be reduced due to VOE • Demonstrated that face recall reduces identifiability of composites • no-description > normal • Demonstrated that VOE can be removed using 30 minute delay between face recall and face construction • delay > normal • => It would be sensible to use such a delay with real eyewitnesses • (Also provided further evidence that feature systems produce very-poor quality composites after 2 days.) • VOE can be overcome using whole-face attribution • Affects another type of composite system [..]

19. EvoFIT – evolve a face

20. EvoFIT – the impact of interview Frowd, et al. (under revision). Interviewing techniques for Darwinian facial composite systems. Applied Cognitive Psychology.

21. Overview • With ‘normal’ face construction detailed face recall is followed by a recognition task, selection of individual facial features • —composites quality may be reduced due to VOE • Demonstrated that face recall reduces identifiability of composites • no-description > normal • Demonstrated that VOE can be removed using 30 minute delay between face recall and face construction • delay > normal • => It would be sensible to use such a delay with real eyewitnesses • (Also provided further evidence that feature systems produce very-poor quality composites after 2 days.) • VOE can be overcome using whole-face attribution • Affects another type of composite system

22. Fin

23. H-CI Summary • Believed to work as it enhances the recognition ability of a witness. This helps him or her decide when the best likeness of a composite has been achieved. • Procedure with witnesses … • CI as normal • Explain that thinking about the overall appearance of a face can help improve the memory for that face. We do this by reflecting mainly on the personality. (free recall of CI) • Ask witnesses to think about personality of the face. Done to themselves (1 minute). • Ask witnesses to make a number of judgments about the face. For each, decide (for themselves) “low”, “medium” or “high”. (cued recall) • Select at least 7 • Intelligent, selfishness, arrogance, distinctive/unusual, honest, pleasant, aggressive (-peaceful), masculine (-feminine), threatening (-safe), angry (-calm), hard (-soft), cold (-warm), athletic (-feeble), hostile (-friendly), extrovert/outgoing (-introvert), caring, dominant, trustworthy, competent. • “How intelligent was the face? Low, medium, high.” • Construct a composite as normal

24. Paul McCartney Mel Gibson Sean Connery Excellent facial composites Richard Kemp, http://www2.wmin.ac.uk/psychology/fprg/efit.htm

25. E-FIT Made from memory

26. Indecent assault

27. Assault

28. Deception

29. Robbery

30. Cycle theft