Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/326
Appears in Collections:Psychology Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: The relative importance of external and internal features of facial composites
Author(s): Frowd, Charlie D
Bruce, Vicki
McIntyre, Alex H
Hancock, Peter J B
Keywords: Facial composite
Witness
Internal features
External features
Unfamiliar face perception
Face Physiology
Face perception
Witnesses
Issue Date: Feb-2007
Date Deposited: 31-Mar-2008
Citation: Frowd CD, Bruce V, McIntyre AH & Hancock PJB (2007) The relative importance of external and internal features of facial composites. British Journal of Psychology, 98 (1), pp. 61-77. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712606X104481
Abstract: Three experiments are reported that compare the quality of external with internal regions within a set of facial composites using two matching-type tasks. Composites are constructed with the aim of triggering recognition from people familiar with the targets, and past research suggests internal face features dominate representations of familiar faces in memory. However the experiments reported here show that the internal regions of composites are very poorly matched against the faces they purport to represent, while external feature regions alone were matched almost as well as complete composites. In Experiments 1 and 2 the composites used were constructed by participant-witnesses who were unfamiliar with the targets and therefore were predicted to demonstrate a bias towards the external parts of a face. In Experiment 3 we compared witnesses who were familiar or unfamiliar with the target items, but for both groups the external features were much better reproduced in the composites, suggesting it is the process of composite construction itself which is responsible for the poverty of the internal features. Practical implications of these results are discussed.
DOI Link: 10.1348/000712606X104481
Rights: Published in the British Journal of Psychology by the British Psychological Society.

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