Accuracy of eyewitness identification is significantly associated with performance on a standardized test of face recognition.
OBJECTIVE
This study assessed the relationship between Eyewitness Accuracy regarding a person met under conditions of high stress and performance on a standardized, neutral test of memory for human faces.


METHODS
Fifty-three U.S. Army personnel were exposed to interrogation stress. Forty-eight hours later, participants were administered the Weschler Face Test and then asked to identify the one interrogator who they had encountered 48 h earlier.


RESULTS
A significant positive relationship was observed between performance on the Weschler Face Test and performance on the Eyewitness task. Inaccurate eyewitnesses exhibited more False Negative errors when performing the Weschler Face Test.


CONCLUSIONS
Trait ability to remember human faces may be related to how accurately people recall faces that are associated with highly emotional circumstances. Detection probability methods, such as ROC curve analyses, may be of assistance to forensic examiners, the police, and the courts, when assessing the probability that eyewitness evidence is accurate.
Morgan
Charles A
CA
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, USA. charles.a.morgan@yale.edu
Hazlett
Gary
G
Baranoski
Madelon
M
Doran
Anthony
A
Southwick
Steven
S
Loftus
Elizabeth
E
D000328:Adult; D005145:Face; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008889:Military Personnel; D019370:Observation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014481:United States