Configural and featural information in facial-composite images

Frowd, Charlie D; Jones, Sharrome; Fodarella, Crsitina; Skelton, Faye C; Fields, Steve; Williams, Anna; Marsh, John E; Thorley, Rachel; Nelson, Laura; Greenwood, Leah; Date, Louisa; Kearley, Kevin; McIntyre, Alex H.; Hancock, Peter J.B.

Abstract

Eyewitnesses are often invited to construct a facial composite, an image created of the person they saw commit a crime that is used by law enforcement to locate criminal suspects. In the current paper, the effectiveness of composite images was investigated from traditional feature systems (E-FIT and PRO-fit), where participants (face constructors) selected individual features to build the face, and a more recent holistic system (EvoFIT), where they ‘evolved’ a composite by repeatedly selecting from arrays of complete faces. Further participants attempted to name these composites when seen as an unaltered image, or when blurred, rotated, linearly stretched or converted to a photographic negative. All of the manipulations tested reduced correct naming of the composites overall except (i) for a low level of blur, for which naming improved for holistic composites but reduced for feature composites, and (ii) for 100% linear stretch, for which a substantial naming advantage was observed. Results also indicated that both featural (facial elements) and configural (feature spacing) information was useful for recognition in both types of composite system, but highly-detailed information was more accurate in the feature-based than the holistic method. The naming advantage of linear stretch was replicated using a forensically more-practical procedure with observers viewing an unaltered ¬composite sideways. The work is valuable to police practitioners and designers of facial-composite systems.

Citation

Frowd, C. D., Jones, S., Fodarella, C., Skelton, F. C., Fields, S., Williams, A., Marsh, J. E., Thorley, R., Nelson, L., Greenwood, L., Date, L., Kearley, K., McIntyre, A. H., & Hancock, P. J. (2014). Configural and featural information in facial-composite images. Science & Justice, 54(3), 215-227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2013.11.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 25, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Dec 15, 2013
• Publication Date: 2014-05
• Deposit Date: Jun 10, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 10, 2015
• Print ISSN: 0015-7368
• Electronic ISSN: 1355-0306
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 215-227
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scijus.2013.11.001
• Keywords: Facial composite; Identification; Feature; Configural; Criminal suspects; Crime
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/8546
• Publisher URL: http://www.scienceandjusticejournal.com/article/S1355-0306(13)00118-4/abstract