Holistic Facial Composite Creation and Subsequent Video Line-up Eyewitness Identification Paradigm.

The paradigm detailed in this manuscript describes an applied experimental method based on real police investigations during which an eyewitness or victim to a crime may create from memory a holistic facial composite of the culprit with the assistance of a police operator. The aim is that the composite is recognized by someone who believes that they know the culprit. For this paradigm, participants view a culprit actor on video and following a delay, participant-witnesses construct a holistic system facial composite.

Holistic Facial Composite Construction and Subsequent Lineup Identification Accuracy: Comparing Adults and Children.

When the police have no suspect, they may ask an eyewitness to construct a facial composite of that suspect from memory. Faces are primarily processed holistically, and recently developed computerized holistic facial composite systems (e.g.

Evolving and combining facial composites: between-witness and within-witness morphs compared.

Student participant-witnesses produced 4 composites of unfamiliar faces with a system that uses a genetic algorithm to evolve appearance of artificial faces. Morphs of 4 composites produced by different witnesses (between-witness morphs) were judged better likenesses (Experiment 1) and were more frequently named (Experiment 2) by participants who were familiar with the target actors than were morphs of 4 composites produced by a single witness (within-witness morphs). Within-witness morphs were judged better likenesses and more frequently named than the best or the first-produced individual composites.