Reducing the Negative Effect of the Retention Interval on the Composite Face Recognition

ABSTRACT

Our memories are quite fragile. We sometimes recognize something unseen as something seen before. This error often causes serious problems, such as the misidentification of composite faces in a criminal investigation. In such a scene, people occasionally claim to have seen a face that is actually a composite face consisting of facial parts separately seen before; this error is called the memory conjunction error. Although the likelihood of the memory conjunction error increases over time, previous studies suggest that it could be suppressed by the number of response options, which are expected to affect the criterion for the “Old” response. Our results show that the presence of three response options reduced the memory conjunction error. Additionally, providing information about the existence of composite faces affected the sensitivity for detecting old faces, whereas three response options affected the criterion. This study might contribute to the improvement of procedures for eyewitness testimony.

KEYWORDS:

• Criterion shift
• face recognition
• memory conjunction error
• retention interval

Funding

This research was supported by the Global Centre for Advanced Research on Logic and Sensibility at Keio University and Research Institute for Science and Technology of Tokyo Denki University Grant Number Q18K-03 / Japan.

Author note

Kyoko Hine is Assistant Processor of Department of Information Environment at Tokyo Denki University, Tokyo. Yuji Itoh is Processor of Department of Psychology at Keio University.