Category Archives: Making a Case

Frowd et al., (2007)

Forensic Psychology, Interviewing Witnesses, Making a Case, OCR A2 Psychology, , ,

Frowd et al., (2007) – The relative importance of external and internal features of facial composites

Background

This is the first study we look at from the ‘Interviewing Witnesses’ section of ‘Making a case’. As part of your OCR A2 Psychology Exam. It is further categorised into ‘Facial Reconstruction.’

Research by both Fantz and Goldstein and Chance highlight the perceptual preference for faces. This leads to increased memory of faces. Fantz showed newborns this image:

Fantz's Face Shapes, Fantz Psychology faces
Fantz’s Face Shapes

The babies all spend the longest time looking at the face on the left. Thus demonstrating an innate human preference for looking at faces.

Goldstein and Spencer showed participants unique images such as snowflakes, ink blots and faces. They found statistically significantly more faces were recalled than any of the other images.

Sinha’s Meta analyisis of stranger face reconstruction (2006) concluded with eight key points.

Firstly, try to identify this image:

Can you see who it is?
Can you see who it is?

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