The impact of external facial features on the construction of facial composites

Brown, Charity; Portch, Emma; Skelton, Faye C.; Fodarella, Cristina; Kuivaniemi-Smith, Heidi; Herold, Kate; Hancock, Peter J. B.; Frowd, Charlie D.

Abstract

Witnesses may construct a composite face of a perpetrator using a computerised interface. Police practitioners guide witnesses through this unusual process, the goal being to produce an identifiable image. However, any changes a perpetrator makes to their external facial-features may interfere with this process. In Experiment 1, participants constructed a composite using a holistic interface one day after target encoding. Target faces were unaltered, or had altered external-features: (i) changed hair, (ii) external-features removed or (iii) naturally-concealed external-features (hair, ears, face-shape occluded by a hooded top). These manipulations produced composites with more error-prone internal-features: participants’ familiar with a target’s unaltered appearance less often provided a correct name. Experiment 2 applied external-feature alterations to composites of unaltered targets; although whole-face composites contained less error-prone internal-features, identification was impaired. Experiment 3 replicated negative effects of changing target hair on construction and tested a practical solution: selectively concealing hair and eyes improved identification.

Citation

Brown, C., Portch, E., Skelton, F. C., Fodarella, C., Kuivaniemi-Smith, H., Herold, K., Hancock, P. J. . B., & Frowd, C. D. (2019). The impact of external facial features on the construction of facial composites. Ergonomics, 62(4), 575-592. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2018.1556816

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 1, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Dec 7, 2018
• Publication Date: Feb 4, 2019
• Deposit Date: Dec 6, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 7, 2018
• Journal: Ergonomics
• Print ISSN: 0014-0139
• Electronic ISSN: 1366-5847
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 62
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 575-592
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2018.1556816
• Keywords: facial composite; altered-features; hair; face processing; witness
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1419093
• Contract Date: Dec 6, 2018