1. INTERVIEWING WITNESSES

2. Recognising Faces
Detecting Lies
Top-down
Typology (FBI)
Factors Affecting
Identification
Interrogation
Techniques
Bottom-up
Approach (Canter)
Cognitive Interview
False Confessions
Case Study
(Railway Rapist)

3. STARTER – A VISUAL ILLUSION

4. LEARNING OBJECTIVE – RECOGNISING FACES
At the end of this lesson you should be able to:
Describe and discuss theory and research surrounding face recognition within forensic psychology.

5. WHAT IS AN E-FIT?
Computerised method of synthesising images to produce
facial composites of wanted criminals based on
eyewitness descriptions

6. FACIAL FEATURES INTERNAL FEATURES (familiar faces) EXTERNAL FEATURES
(unfamiliar faces)

7. FACTORS AFFECTING FACE RECOGNITION
Area of cognitive psychology (perception / memory)
Innate ability – recognition of mother’s face / voice
Familiarity of face
Accuracy of certain facial features (on E-Fit)
Context of viewing of face e.g. level of illumination; movement of target
Characteristics of witness (e.g. age, ethnicity)
Nature of offence e.g. level of violence
BRUCE ET AL
(1988)

8. HOLISTIC MODEL OF FACE RECOGNITION
Structurally Encoded:
A representation (schema) of the face is created
Face Recognition Unit (FRU):
Each familiar face has a FRU containing
structural information about that face
Person Identity Node (PIN):
Information about the person is activated
e.g. occupation, interests etc
MAY NOT BE ACTIVATED
It’s Barack Obama!
Name generation:
The individual’s name is produced; this is stored
separately from other information about them

9. Can you spot the three criminal faces?

10. PROBLEMS / ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH FACE RECOGNITION
Expectations / stereotypes (Duncan, 1976)
Halo effect
Unconscious transference (Donald Thompson case)
Limitations of technology
- exposure mode (static; expressionless)
- facial morphing (p27)
Errors in police procedure (p25)
Use of CCTV

11. PLENARY – RECOGNISING FACES
Three things you have learnt about recognising faces…