Contextual information renders experts vulnerable to making erroneous identifications
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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Holistic Facial Composite Creation and Subsequent Video Line-up Eyewitness Identification Paradigm
Published on: December 24, 2015
Itiel E Dror1, David Charlton, Ailsa E Péron
1School of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. id@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Abstract:
We investigated whether experts can objectively focus on feature information in fingerprints without being misled by extraneous information, such as context. We took fingerprints that have previously been examined and assessed by latent print experts to make positive identification of suspects. Then we presented these same fingerprints again, to the same experts, but gave a context that suggested that they were a no-match, and hence the suspects could not be identified. Within this new context, most of the fingerprint experts made different judgements, thus contradicting their own previous identification decisions. Cognitive aspects involved in biometric identification can explain why experts are vulnerable to make erroneous identifications.
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