Do Descriptions of Facial Features or
Personal Motivations Improve Line Ups?
Christopher Koch, Remi Gentry, Jenifer Shaheed, & Kelsi Buswell
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine if explaining criminal
behavior influences later identification. Schooler and EngstlerSchooler’s (1990) Experiment 5 was replicated with the additional
condition of describing why the criminal engaged in the behavior.
No differences were found between those who described facial
features and those that described motivation.
Introduction
People quickly make judgments about others. Do these judgments
influence our ability to recognize others? The present study was
conducted in conjunction with the APS Replication Initiative
focusing on Schooler and Engstler-Schooler’s (1990) study on the
verbal overshadowing effect. The verbal overshadowing effect
refers to the impairment of recalling visual details of an
experienced event due to verbally rehearsing that event. In the
original study, Schooler and Engstler-Schooler compared verbally
describing the facial features (face verbalization) of a bank robber
shown in a video with a control condition (Experiment 1). Face
verbalization was also compared with face visualization, and
statement verbalizations, respectively, in Experiments 2, 3, and 5.
Across experiments, face verbalization lead to impaired
identification of the bank robber from a picture line-up with seven
distractor faces. It appears that verbal overshadowing does not
compromise the visual information associated with the faces but
shifts processing to local features instead of global features which
are important for face recognition (Lloyd-Jones, Brown, & Clarke,
2006). In the present study, the control and facial verbalization
conditions from Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990) were
combined with a motive verbalization condition in subjects
described the reasons behind the individual robbing the bank in
the video. The motive verbalization condition required the subjects
to describe the bank robber without focusing on visual
characteristics. Therefore, the description remains centered on the
bank robber without shifting attention from global to local features
of the face.
Method
Subjects
132 psychology students volunteered to participate in the study
for class credit. However, in order to match the demographic
composition of Schooler and Engstler-Schooler’s (1990), only
Caucasian subjects between 18 to 25 years of age were
retained. This restriction eliminated 11 subjects due to race and
five due to age.
Condition
n
Males
Females
Control
48
18
30
Features
48
20
28
Motive
20
8
12
Totals
116
46
70
Procedure
Participants were randomly assigned to the control and two
experimental conditions. All subjects were told that they
participating in a perception and memory experiment that had
several tasks. The first task was to pay attention to a short video.
They were then shown a video of a mock bank robbery. After
watching the video, subjects in the control condition were
instructed to write down as many countries and their capitals as
they could in five minutes. Subjects in the features experimental
group were instructed to write down as much as they could
remember about the facial features of the bank robber in the
video. Subjects in the motive experimental group were instructed
to write down possible motives behind the individual’s decision to
rob the bank. This five-minute task was followed by 20 minutes in
which subjects worked on a crossword puzzle. Once the puzzle
task was complete, subjects were instructed to identify the bank
robber from a picture line-up. Subjects then rated their
confidence in their selection using a seven-point scale.
Results and Discussion
Condition
Results show no differences in recognition across conditions.
Likewise, no differences in identification times were found across
conditions nor were there differences in confidence ratings.
Although the results indicate that face and motive verbalization
produce similar identification rates, no verbal overshadowing was
found when these conditions were compared to the control
condition. It is possible that the failure to find verbal
overshadowing may be attributed to the filler task which may have
provided a release from verbal overshadowing (Finger & Pezdek,
1999).
Choice
Unlike Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990), who found that
subjects correctly identifying the bank robber were more
confident in their selection than those who either misidentified or
missed the bank robber, the current results show that those who
correctly identified or missed the bank robber were equally
confident and more confident than those who misidentified the
bank robber (F(2, 102) = 10.14, p < .001). However,
identification times were significantly faster for subjects who
correctly identified the bank robber than for subjects who did not
(F(2, 104) = 3.98, p < .03).
Gender Differences
Females were significantly faster at identifying the bank robber
than males (t(101) = 2.06, p < .05). However, males were
marginally more confident in their selection than females (t(99) =
1.95, p < .06).
Attributions
In general, people tend to ascribe internal attributions to the
actions of others. This is true even when external factors play an
important role in the outcome (cf., Rickard, 2014). However, a
qualitative review of the motives provided by subjects reveals that
external factors were used to describe the reason behind robbing
the bank.
References
Note: This study was conducted as part of the initial APS Replication
Project examining Schooler and Engstler-Schooler ‘s (1990) overshadowing
effect. Links to the study protocol and application to participate, as well as to
the full project site on Open Science Framework, can be found at:
Finger, K., & Pezdek, K. (1999). The effect of the cognitive interview on face identification accuracy: Release from
verbal overshadowing. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 340-348.
Rickard, L. N. (2014). Perception of risk and the attribution of responsibility for accidents. Risk Analysis, 34, 514-528.
Schooler, J., & Engstler-Schooler, T. Y. (1990). Verbal overshadowing of visual memories: Some things are better left
unsaid. Cognitive Psychology, 22, 36-71.
http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/replication/ongoing-projects
Poster presented at APS 2014