Memory for faces and the circumstances of encounter

Abstract

Conducted 3 experiments to examine the possibility that eyewitness identifications may be biased because persons may be much better able to recognize a face than to recall where they saw it. In Exp I, 14 college students were asked both to recognize 50 facial photographs seen 2 days before and to recall in which of 2 distinctive rooms they had been seen. Strong recognition and minimal recall were found. Exp II (64 college students) and III (146 college students) modeled more closely the usual criminal identification situation with mugshot and lineup sessions occurring after the initial encounter with the suspects. Ss in Exp II were aware they would need to remember the Ss' faces; in Exp III, they were not aware of this need. Both experiments provided evidence of considerable confusion in mugshot and lineup identifications as well as a lack of correlation between eyewitness accuracy and confidence. In addition, there were strong mugshot-induced biases in Exp III that could have a bearing on questions of legal procedure and admissibility of evidence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)