Eyewitnesses with mild learning disabilities: Face recognition and description abilities Presenter: Julie Gawrylowicz Supervisory team: Dr Derek Carson, Dr Fiona Gabbert, University of Abertay Dundee, Professor William Lindsay, University of Abertay Dundee and NHS Tayside and Professor Peter Hancock, University of Stirling UNIVERSITY OF ABERTAY

Definition: Learning disability (LD) Hard to define! Too many definitions depending on… Century Country Domain 4 sub-categories Criteria utilized during current experiment to define mild learning disability (mLD) (WHO, 1992) Significant impairment of intellectual functioning (IQ 50-70) Significant impairment of adaptive/social functioning Age of onset before adulthood

Relevance LD might have serious impacts on reliability and accuracy of an eyewitness account, since it influences several cognitive skills High prevalence rate (Emerson, 2001) People with LD are more susceptible to victimization (Memon & Bull, 1999) Limited research

Theoretical background – What do we know so far? Eyewitness research with people with LD: Suggestibility and acquiescence Open- vs. closed-ended questions The Cognitive Interview (CI)

Research Questions Do participants with mLD perform differently than controls? During a facial recognition task During a facial description task

Present Study Participants 30 with mLD (21-58; mean = 39 yrs; WASI: FSIQ-4 score: mean = 58.48, SD = 5.28, range = ) 30 controls (19-54; mean = 29 yrs) Two parts Recognition task Description task

Face-recognition task Design Between-subjects design DV: Accuracy of recognition (old/new judgments) Procedure Study phase Test phase 2 practice trials

Face-recognition task: Practice trial І Study phase face on screen for 10s Test phase 2 faces(1 old; 1 new) presented in random and sequential order for each participants gave old/new judgements each on screen for as long as participant needed to make decision 10s Study phaseTest phase

Face-recognition task: Practice trial ІІ Study phase 10s Test phase Study phase 3 Mr Men on screen for 10s presented in random and sequential order Test phase 6 faces (3 old; 3 new) presented in random and sequential order for each participants gave old/new judgements each on screen for as long as participant needed to make decision 10s

Face-recognition task: main task Study phase Test phase Study phase 5 faces on screen for 10s presented in random and sequential order Test phase 10 faces (5 old; 5 new) presented in random and sequential order for each participants gave old/new judgements each on screen for as long as participant needed to make decision 10s

Face-recognition task: Results main effect for group (p<.05)

Face-description task Design Mixed design DV: Amount and accuracy of facial information reported. Procedure Describe from memory: the face disappeared after 10s Free recall Cued recall Describe from photo: the face was visible all the time Free recall Cued recall

Question format Free recall What did the face look like you have just seen on my computer? Tell me as much about it as you can. Can you tell me something else about the face? Cued recall What did the hair look like of the face you have just seen on my computer? What did the eyebrows look like of the face you have just seen on my computer?

Face-description task: Stimuli

Face-description task: Results Ι - Quantity main effect for group (p<.05) main effect for recall (p<.05) interaction between recall and group (p<.05) main effect for group (p<.05) main effect for recall (p<.05)

Face-description task: Results ΙΙ - Accuracy main effect for group (p<.05) Interaction between recall and group (p<.05)

Conclusions participants with mLD performed poorer on both face recognition and face description tasks than controls participants with mLD and controls mentioned more facial details during the cued recall than during the free recall trends indicate that, in contrast to controls, participants with mLD mentioned more appropriate details during the cued recall than during the free recall

Possible future directions Do visual prompts help people with mLD to give more accurate and detailed facial descriptions? Example of visual prompts:

Thank you for listening!