Confidence-accuracy calibration in absolute and relative face recognition judgments

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Forensic Psychology

Background:

• Confidence-accuracy (CA) calibration is crucial for understanding judgment reliability.
• Distinguishing between absolute and relative judgments, and simultaneous versus sequential stimuli, is important in recognition tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate confidence-accuracy calibration in face recognition across different judgment types and stimulus presentation methods.
• To determine the influence of task difficulty on CA calibration.

Main Methods:

• Examined CA calibration for absolute and relative face recognition judgments.
• Assessed CA calibration for simultaneous and sequential mini-lineups.
• Controlled for task difficulty to isolate effects.

Main Results:

• Absolute and relative judgments showed similar CA calibration when difficulty was controlled.
• Simultaneous and sequential mini-lineups yielded comparable CA calibration.
• Task difficulty affected CA calibration similarly across judgment and lineup types.
• Positive recognition judgments exhibited strong CA calibration, while negative judgments showed weak or no calibration.

Conclusions:

• Confidence-accuracy calibration is robust across different face recognition judgment types and presentation formats.
• The distinction between positive and negative recognition judgments significantly impacts calibration.
• Findings have implications for the reliability of eyewitness identification procedures.