Running head featural composites and lineups: "What big teeth you have" - Red Riding Hood and the face recognition failure : the effects of isolated featural and configural composite construction and recognition accuracy

When a crime is committed, law enforcement typically relies on the testimony of an eyewitness. However, eyewitness testimony is often susceptible to contamination. Eyewitnesses are usually required to construct a composite of the perpetrator. Research has suggested that eyewitnesses who construct composites are more likely to misidentify the target in a later recognition task (Comish, 1987; Wells, Charman, & Olson, 2005; Yu & Geiselman, 1993). This hampering effect may occur because composite programs utilise a featural selection strategy, which is in opposition to configural and holistic processing that is used when faces are encoded.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Kempen, Kate-Victoria

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tredoux, Colin

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/12007

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/12007