Four heads are better than one: combining face composites yields improvements in face likeness

摘要

Four different participants constructed face composites, using “PRO-Fit”, offamiliar and unfamiliar targets, with reference images present or from memory.The "mean" of all four composites, created by morphing (4-Morph) was rated as abetter likeness than individual composites on average, and was as good as thebest individual likeness. When participants attempted to identify targets fromline-ups, 4-Morphs again performed as well as the best individual composite. Ina second experiment participants familiar with target women attempted toidentify composites, and the trend showed better recognition from multiplecomposites, whether combined or shown together. In a line-up task withunfamiliar participants, 4-Morphs produced most correct choices, and fewestfalse positives from target absent or target present arrays. These results havepractical implications for the way evidence from different witnesses is used inpolice investigati