Motivational Incentives Improve Unfamiliar Face Matching Accuracy

Abstract

Unfamiliar face matching is the process of simultaneously verifying the equivalence of two faces. Accuracy within this task is crucial given its importance and prevalence in security domains. However, research has consistently demonstrated that unfamiliar face matching is error prone, suggesting the need for improvement techniques. Motivational incentives have been shown to reliably enhance performance on a wide array of cognitive tasks. Therefore, the current study examined the effect of motivational incentives on unfamiliar face matching. Experiment 1 showed increased accuracy in mismatch trials with the addition of a motivational incentive. The improvement was associated with an increase in reaction time and bias towards making a mismatch response. This bias, however, did not produce a decrease in accuracy on match trials. Experiment 2 replicated this result with a more ecologically valid methodology. The results suggest motivational incentives to be effective at improving performance on mismatch trials, arguably the most important aspect of real-world unfamiliar face matching.

Matching Faces Against the Clock

“…In this setup, an effect of time pressure was obtained only when observers were asked to check additional semantic information, such as a person’s age, height, or postal address, alongside the face. This indicates that unfamiliar faces can be matched within a 6-second limit and is consistent with self-paced laboratory studies, which consistently reveal average response times of less than 6 seconds in comparable tasks (see, e.g., Estudillo & Bindemann, 2014 ; Moore & Johnston, 2013 ; Papesh & Goldinger, 2014 ).…”

Methodological improvements for studying face matching in border control tasks

“…In the current study, we found that the addition of consequences led to more conservative responding and better performance on match trials. In contrast, Moore and Johnston (2013) found that adding motivational incentives to a low mismatch prevalence face matching task resulted in a more liberal response criterion, improving accuracy on mismatch trials and performance overall. Therefore, the combination of consequences and motivational incentives could improve accuracy in the verification of both genuine and fraudulent passports.…”

The effect of facial ageing on forensic facial image comparison

“…There are mixed results for effects of motivation on face matching. Some studies have found that increasing motivation (e.g., via food or financial incentives) improves face matching (Moore & Johnston, 2013), particularly for other‐race faces (Susa et al, 2019), however other studies have found limited or no effects of motivation (e.g., Bobak et al, 2016; Kemp et al, 1997). It has been argued that motivation is unlikely to explain the differences between facial examiners and controls.…”