Exploring composite production and its effects on eyewitness memory
Abstract
The current study examined the effects of composite construction on eyewitness identification accuracy, and whether repeated viewing of a composite leads to subsequent identification errors. Participants were 180 undergraduate students. In the first session, participants viewed a target for 60 sec.; half were randomly assigned to construct a composite of the target face and the other half completed a filler task for the remainder of the session. During a one week delay, participants viewed a composite once, twice, or not at all and then returned for an identification test. The identification task consisted of a 6-person photoarray, including the target, the composite and four morphs intermediate to the target and the composite. Those who created and/or viewed a composite had lower identification accuracy than those who did not. Those who either created or viewed a composite were more likely to show confusion between the target and composite.
Subject Area
Psychology|Experiments|Criminology
Recommended Citation
Topp, Lisa Dawn, "Exploring composite production and its effects on eyewitness memory" (2006). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI1439491.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1439491