Improving face identification of mask-wearing individuals

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Forensic Science
• Human Perception

Background:

• Concealing facial features impairs identification accuracy.
• The COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for effective identification of masked individuals.
• Current eyewitness identification protocols lack evidence-based guidelines for masked suspects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how lineup construction (masked vs. unmasked) affects the identification of masked perpetrators.
• To assess the impact of perpetrator presence (present vs. absent) in lineups.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted to compare identification accuracy.
• Participants viewed lineups that were either unmasked or masked.
• Lineups included conditions where the perpetrator was present or absent.

Main Results:

• Identification discriminability was significantly better with masked lineups.
• This improvement was primarily driven by higher hit rates when the target perpetrator was present.
• Masked lineups enhanced the identification of masked faces.

Conclusions:

• Presenting masked lineups can improve the accuracy of identifying individuals wearing face coverings.
• These findings have significant implications for eyewitness identification procedures.
• The study provides evidence-based recommendations for recognizing people with face coverings in forensic and daily contexts.