Face matching in a long task: enforced rest and desk-switching cannot maintain identification accuracy

PeerJ

Matthew C. Fysh¹  Robert A. Johnston¹  Hamood M. Alenezi¹  Markus Bindemann¹ 

[1] School of Psychology, University of Kent, UK;

关键词: Face perception;    Face matching;    Unfamiliar faces;    Passport control;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.1184

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

In face matching, observers have to decide whether two photographs depict the same person or different people. This task is not only remarkably difficult but accuracy declines further during prolonged testing. The current study investigated whether this decline in long tasks can be eliminated with regular rest-breaks (Experiment 1) or room-switching (Experiment 2). Both experiments replicated the accuracy decline for long face-matching tasks and showed that this could not be eliminated with rest or room-switching. These findings suggest that person identification in applied settings, such as passport control, might be particularly error-prone due to the long and repetitive nature of the task. The experiments also show that it is difficult to counteract these problems.

【 授权许可】

Unknown