Confidence judgments are associated with face identification accuracy: Findings from a confidence forced-choice task

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Forensic Science

Background:

• Confidence is often used as a proxy for identification accuracy in legal settings, particularly in forensic face examination.
• The reliability of self-reported confidence in face identification decisions remains uncertain.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether individuals can accurately gauge the correctness of their face-identification decisions using confidence reports.
• To determine if trial difficulty influences confidence judgments in face perception tasks.

Main Methods:

• A confidence forced-choice methodology was employed, where participants compared confidence across two face-identity matching trials.
• Participants identified the different face identity from three images (two same, one different).
• Face-image triads were selected based on item-difficulty estimates from prior psychometric modeling.

Main Results:

• The difference in difficulty between paired trials predicted high-confidence judgments on easier trials.
• Performance accuracy was significantly higher on trials associated with greater confidence.
• Confidence judgments were reliably linked to the actual correctness of perceptual face-identity matching decisions.

Conclusions:

• Individuals demonstrate a reliable ability to evaluate the accuracy of their perceptual face-identity matching decisions.
• Trial difficulty serves as a key factor influencing how individuals assess their confidence in face identification.