NCJ Number
116643
Date Published
1989
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This discussion of experimental studies on person identification by a witness considers verbal and visual processes within the encoding, retention, and retrieval phases.
Abstract
The experiments used frontal and side photographs and slides. One experiment considered the effects of stereotypical biases by showing photographs of murders and told that only some of the photographs were of murderers. Findings showed that observers were more likely to attach criminal labels to some faces than to others. Other studies focusing on retention found that a time delay does not necessarily produce a deterioration in facial recognition as it does with verbal materials. An experiment designed to determine whether verbal labels applied by the observer can aid in later retrieval allowed observers to make notes designed to aid their memory and then to identify the faces when presented in side views and mixed with slides of new faces. However, the subjects that used verbal as well as visual cues had a lower rate of accuracy than those relying on visual cues only. Findings from the different experiments suggest that labeling may influence later identification, although reliance on more purely visual processing of facial information may be superior for typical faces. Figures and 71 references.