NCJ Number
14738
Journal
Criminologist Volume: 8 Issue: 30 Dated: (AUTUMN 1973) Pages: 46-52
Date Published
1973
Length
7 pages
Annotation
STUDY OF VARIABLES AFFECTING OBSERVER PERFORMANCE IN VISUAL IDENTIFICATION OF SPECTROGRAMS, SHOWING UNTRAINED OBSERVERS PERFORMING AS WELL AS TRAINED OBSERVERS.
Abstract
THIS EXPERIMENT WAS UNDERTAKEN FOR THE PURPOSE OF ASCERTAINING THE DEGREE TO WHICH 15 OBSERVERS, WHO WERE NAIVE WITH RESPECT TO PHONETICS AND SOUND SPECTROGRAPHY, COULD MATCH CONTOUR-DISPLAY SPECTROGRAMS OF A FIVE-WORD SENTENCE PRODUCED BY DIFFERENT SPEAKERS, AND TO STUDY THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELECTED OBSERVER VARIABLES AND SUCCESS OF VISUAL IDENTIFICATION OF SPECTROGRAMS. CORRECT IDENTIFICATIONS RANGED FROM 50 TO 100 PERCENT, WITH A MEAN OF 8266 PERCENT CORRECT MATCHES. CORRELATIONS OF IDENTIFICATION SCORES WITH AGE, YEARS OF EDUCATION, DEGREE OF CONFIDENCE, TASK TIME, AND NUMBER OF CLUES EMPLOYED WERE NOT SIGNIFICANT. SINCE UNTRAINED OBSERVERS DID AS WELL AS TRAINED OBSERVERS, THE AUTHORS SUGGEST TRAINING IN VISUAL PATTERN RECOGNITION MAY BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN EDUCATION IN PHONETICS AND SOUND SPECTOGRAPHY FOR OBSERVERS. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED)