Understanding the multiframe caricature advantage for recognizing facial composites

Frowd, Charlie D.; Skelton, Faye Collette; Atherton, Chris J; Pitchford, Melanie; Bruce, Vicki; Atkins, Rebecca; Gannon, Carol; Ross, David A.; Young, Fern; Nelson, Laura; Hepton, Gemma; McIntyre, Alex H.; Hancock, Peter

doi:10.1080/13506285.2012.743936

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Brace et al, 2000;Frowd et al, 2008). For the same reasons as ours, recent research (e.g., Frowd et al, 2012c) has used regression techniques to analyse naming responses.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 80%

A decade of evolving composites: regression- and meta-analysis

Frowd

Erickson

Lampinen

et al. 2015

Journal of Forensic Practice

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of seven variables that emerge from forensic research on facial-composite construction and naming using contemporary police systems: EvoFIT, Feature and Sketch. Design/methodology/approach – The paper involves regression- and meta-analyses on composite-naming data from 23 studies that have followed procedures used by police practitioners for forensic face construction. The corpus for analyses contains 6,464 individual naming responses from 1,069 participants in 41 experimental conditions. Findings – The analyses reveal that composites constructed from the holistic EvoFIT system were over four-times more identifiable than composites from “Feature” (E-FIT and PRO-fit) and Sketch systems; Sketch was somewhat more effective than Feature systems. EvoFIT was more effective when internal features were created before rather than after selecting hair and the other (blurred) external features. Adding questions about the global appearance of the face (as part of the holistic-cognitive interview (H-CI)) gives a valuable improvement in naming over the standard face-recall cognitive interview (CI) for all three system types tested. The analysis also confirmed that composites were considerably less effective when constructed from a long (one to two days) compared with a short (0-3.5 hours) retention interval. Practical implications – Variables were assessed that are of importance to forensic practitioners who construct composites with witnesses and victims of crime. Originality/value – Using a large corpus of forensically-relevant data, the main result is that EvoFIT using the internal-features method of construction is superior; an H-CI administered prior to face construction is also advantageous (cf. face-recall CI) for EvoFIT as well as for two further contrasting production systems.

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“…Brace et al, 2000;Frowd et al, 2008). For the same reasons as ours, recent research (e.g., Frowd et al, 2012c) has used regression techniques to analyse naming responses.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 80%

A decade of evolving composites: regression- and meta-analysis

Frowd

Erickson

Lampinen

et al. 2015

Journal of Forensic Practice

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“…It is under these circumstances that identifications arising from feature-based composites tend to be infrequent in police investigations (Frowd, Hancock et al, 2011), an observation supported by laboratory research (e.g. Frowd, Carson, Ness, McQuiston et al, 2005;Frowd, McQuistonSurrett et al, 2007;Frowd et al, 2010;Koehn & Fisher, 1997;Kovera, Penrod, Pappas & Thill, 1997).…”

Section: Problems With Face Constructionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Whole-face procedures for recovering facial images from memory

et al. 2013

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Research has indicated that traditional methods for accessing facial memories usually yield unidentifiable images. Recent research, however, has made important improvements in this area to the witness interview, method used for constructing the face and recognition of finished composites. Here, we investigated whether three of these improvements would produce even-more recognisable images when used in conjunction with each other. The techniques are holistic in nature: they involve processes which operate on an entire face. Forty participants first inspected an unfamiliar target face. Nominally 24h later, they were interviewed using a standard type of cognitive interview (CI) to recall the appearance of the target, or an enhanced 'holistic' interview where the CI was followed by procedures for focussing on the target's character. Participants then constructed a composite using EvoFIT, a recognition-type system that requires repeatedly selecting items from face arrays, with 'breeding', to 'evolve' a composite. They either saw faces in these arrays with blurred external features, or an enhanced method where these faces were presented with masked external features. Then, further participants attempted to name the composites, first by looking at the face front-on, the normal method, and then for a second time by looking at the face side-on, which research demonstrates facilitates recognition. All techniques improved correct naming on their own, but together promoted highly-recognisable composites with mean naming at 74% correct. The implication is that these techniques, if used together by practitioners, should substantially increase the detection of suspects using this forensic method of person identification

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“…A more promising option might be to include both in one presentation. We have previously had some success in using animation with caricature to search for the optimal level of distinctiveness for facial composite recognition (Frowd, Bruce, Ross, McIntyre, & Hancock, 2007;Frowd, Skelton, Atherton, Pitchford, Bruce, et al, 2012). Future evaluation of the misaligned facial composite effect will explore the efficacy of an animated sequence that misaligns the face image and then realigns it across a sequence of frames.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holistic face processing can inhibit recognition of forensic facial composites.

McIntyre¹,

Hancock²,

Frowd³

et al. 2016

Law and Human Behavior

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Facial composite systems help eyewitnesses to show the appearance of criminals. However, likenesses created by unfamiliar witnesses will not be completely accurate, and people familiar with the target can find them difficult to identify. Faces are processed holistically; we explore whether this impairs identification of inaccurate composite images and whether recognition can be improved. In Experiment 1 (n = 64) an imaging technique was used to make composites of celebrity faces more accurate and identification was contrasted with the original composite images. Corrected composites were better recognized, confirming that errors in production of the likenesses impair identification. The influence of holistic face processing was explored by misaligning the top and bottom parts of the composites (cf. Young, Hellawell, & Hay, 1987). Misalignment impaired recognition of corrected composites but identification of the original, inaccurate composites significantly improved. This effect was replicated with facial composites of noncelebrities in Experiment 2 (n = 57). We conclude that, like real faces, facial composites are processed holistically: recognition is impaired because unlike real faces, composites contain inaccuracies and holistic face processing makes it difficult to perceive identifiable features. This effect was consistent across composites of celebrities and composites of people who are personally familiar. Our findings suggest that identification of forensic facial composites can be enhanced by presenting composites in a misaligned format.

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Understanding the multiframe caricature advantage for recognizing facial composites

Cited by 16 publications

References 38 publications

A decade of evolving composites: regression- and meta-analysis

A decade of evolving composites: regression- and meta-analysis

Whole-face procedures for recovering facial images from memory

Holistic face processing can inhibit recognition of forensic facial composites.

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