2,852 research outputs found
Imagining Fictional Faces
Fictional characters loom large in cultural traditions throughout recorded history, and are commonly portrayed in literature and visual arts. The persistence of these traditions demonstrates that information concerning the appearance of fictional characters - including facial appearance - can be preserved and shared among individuals. The current thesis is an attempt to understand the cognitive processes underlying mental imagery for fictional faces.
It was already established that mental representations of real faces undergo qualitative change as visual exposure leads to familiarity. Fictional faces are never seen directly, though they may be represented in various ways. If fictional faces can acquire the psychological hallmarks of familiar faces, this would suggest alternative routes to face learning, besides natural visual exposure. To date however, this possibility has been largely ignored. The experiments in this thesis addressed learning of fictional faces by examining familiarity effects for fictional faces, and by assessing the consequences of reading descriptions on mental imagery for fictional characters. The main findings indicate that face representations and face learning may be more adaptable than previously assumed, accommodating photographic images, different types of drawings, and written descriptions. All of these representations can be quantified and compared using the common currency of social inference ratings. Written descriptions of physical and character attributes both contribute to mental imagery for faces, and these complementary types of information can converge on specific facial identities. As well as enriching our psychological understanding of face processing, the current thesis forms a bridge between the scientific study of faces, and portrayals of faces in the arts
Improving composite images of faces produced by eyewitnesses
When a witness views a crime, they are often asked to construct a facial likeness, or
composite of the suspect. These composites are then used to stimulate recognition
from someone who is familiar with the suspect. Facial composites are commonly used
in large scale cases e. g. Jill Dando, Yorkshire Ripper, however a great deal of
research has indicated that facial composites perform poorly and often do not portray
an accurate likeness of the suspect. This thesis therefore examined methods of
improving facial composites. In particular, it examined methods of increasing the
likeness portrayed in composites, both during construction and at test.
Experiments 1 to 3 examined the effectiveness of a new three-quarter-view database
in PROfit. Experiment 1 examined whether the presentation of composites in a three-quarter-
view composite will aid construction. Participant-witnesses were exposed to
all views of a target and the results indicated that three-quarter-view composites
performed as well as full-face composites but not better. Experiments 2 and 3 then
examined whether the presentation of two composites (one in a full-face view and the
other in a three-quarter-view) from the same participant-witness would increase
performance above the level observed for a single composite. The results revealed that
two views were better than one. In addition, experiment 3 examined the issue of
encoding specificity and viewpoint dependency in composite construction. All
participant-witnesses were exposed to either one view of a target (full-face or three-quarter)
or all views and they were asked to construct both a full-face and a three-quarter-
view composite. The results indicated that performance was better when all views of a face had been presented. When a target had been seen in a three-quarter-view,
it was better to construct a three-quarter-view composite. However, when a
target had been seen in a full-face view, performance for both full-face and three-quarter
composites was poor.
Experiments 4 to 8 examined whether the presentation of composites from multiple
witnesses would increase performance. The results revealed that morphing composites
from four different witnesses (4-Morphs) resulted in an image that performed as well
as or better than the best single image. Further experimentation attempted to examine
why multiple composites performed well. In particular, it was asked whether multiple
composites performed well because they contained varied information or whether
they performed well because they just contained more information. Multiple
composites from both single and multiple witnesses using the same (PROfit) and
different (PROfit, E-FIT, Sketch, EvoFIT) composite techniques were compared and
the results revealed that multiple composites performed well because they contained
different memorial representations. This combination of different memorial
representations appeared to result in an image that was closer to the ideal, or
prototypical image.
Experiments 9 to 12 examined the relationship between verbal descriptions and
composite quality. The results revealed that there was no clear relationship between
the amount of description provided, the accuracy of the description and performance
of the resulting composite. Further experimentation examined whether the
presentation of a composite and a description would increase performance above the
level observed for a single composite. The results revealed that the combination of a description and a composite from the same participant-witness did increase
performance. This indicated that descriptions and composites might contain differing
amounts and types of featural and configurational information.
Both the theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Experiments 1, 2 and 3 of this thesis have been submitted for publication. Ness, H.,
Hancock, P. J. B., Bowie, L. and Bruce, V. Are two views better than one? A study
investigating recognition of full-face and three-quarter-view composites. Applied
Cognitive Psychology.
Experiment 4 of this thesis appears in Bruce, V., Ness, H., Hancock, P. J. B.,
Newman, C. and Rarity, J. (2002). Four heads are better than one: combining face
composites results yields improvements in face likeness. Journal of Applied
Psychology. 87 (5), 894-902.
Other Publications
Frowd, C. D., Carson, D., Ness, H., Richardson, J., Morrison, L., McLanaghan, S.,
Hancock, P. J. B. Evaluating Facial Composite Systems. Manuscript accepted for
publication in Psychology, Crime and Law.
Frowd, C. D., Carson, D., Ness, H., McQuiston, D., Richardson, J., Baldwin, H.,
Hancock, P. J. B. Contemporary Composite Techniques: The impact of a forensically relevant
target delay. Manuscript accepted for publication in Legal and
Criminological Psychology
Neural substrate of emotion in man : a study in methodology
Emotional behaviour has several components, which include
emotional perception, emotional expression, autonomic reactivity, and inner
subjective experience. It is hypothesised that these different processes can be
selectively disturbed after brain damage. However, emotional and cognitive
deficits usually co-exist in a particular patient, and the relationship between
cognition and emotion is discussed.
Animal data indicate that, following an initial sensory analysis in
primary and association cortex, a stimulus acquires emotional significance by
interfacing with "limbic" processes through multimodal cortex. Emotional
expressions also develop in the course of similar multistage integrations
between motor and limbic processes. This suggests three possible relationships
between cognitive and emotional deficit. First, an inability to either perceive or
express emotion may be directly due to various primary "non-emotional"
perceptuo-motor deficits. Secondly, damage to neural sites where limbic and
sensori-motor systems interface may produce deficits which are
simultaneously cognitive and emotional. For example, perseverative behaviour
in the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and inability to control emotional impulses
may be different aspects of a single deficit, which is indissociably cognitive and
emotional. Thirdly, there may be a class of "pure" emotional deficits, which are
not associated with perceptuo-motor or cognitive deficit.
Tests based on the above classification approach were used to
assess the effect of lesion site on emotional functioning. Cognitive function,
emotional perception, emotional expression, subjective response, and
autonomic reactivity were assessed in 48 patients with focal brain lesions, and
10 matched non-brain injured controls. Patients with anterior lesions were
impaired relative to posteriors and controls in emotional perception and
expression. These frontal deficits remained after statistical control of lesion
variables (size, aetiology, and degree of bilateral involvement), and
non-emotional perceptual, motor or cognitive impairments. Though such
statistical controls provide suggestive evidence of a specific emotional deficit,
they cannot completely eliminate the possibility that the frontal deficit is
secondary to perceptuo-motor or cognitive impairment. Experimental
strategies designed to provide more positive evidence of a specific emotional
disorder were employed, and met with partial success.
Dysphasia affected performance on tests of emotional perception
and expression after left brain damage. Following right hemisphere damage,
visual perceptual deficit contributed to impairment in emotional perception.
There were indications that hemispheric perceptual-cognitive asymmetries may
not account for all right-left differences on the emotional subtests. However no
current model of hemispheric emotional asymmetries could fully explain the
present findings. For example, the data on emotional perception supported the
view that the right hemisphere is specialised for attentional/emotional
processes (Heilman et al, 1983), but neglect and emotional expression were not
correlated. Also, the present data generally contradicted the hypothesis that
positive and negative emotions are lateralised in the left and right hemispheres,
respectively.
The final chapter assesses the extent to which the data fit the
proposed system for categorising emotional disorder. Limitations to the
methods used in making this evaluation were discussed, and possible ways of
overcoming these restrictions were briefly considered
The Referential Communication of Facial Characteristics by Deaf and Normal-Hearing Adolescents
In order to assess the characteristics of the manual communications of linguistically adult deaf individuals, six pairs of deaf adolescents and 24 pairs of normal hearing adolescents described photographic referents in a referential communication setting. The referents were photographs of people\u27s faces, selected in a preliminary recognizability study to insure a range of difficulty from easily recognizable to almost chance recognition.
Although the design was essentially exploratory and descriptive, there are several noteworthy results: (1) There was no difference between the two subject groups in the accuracy with which they communicated. Both groups scored extremely high. (2) The deaf group had a significantly faster rate of cue presentation. In other words, the deaf subjects managed to include more cues per unit of time than the normal hearing subjects. (3) The uncertainty ratio measures of the deaf subjects were significantly higher than those of the normal hearing subjects, That is, there was less intra-group, inter-subject cue commonality for the deaf subjects. (4) Analysis of the content of the descriptions showed that the deaf and normal hearing subjects included the same features in much the same order in their descriptions. (5) A comparison of the within-group correlations showed a striking difference between groups as far as the overall pattern of these correlations, suggesting a different underlying approach to the task.
It appears, then, that for real-life-like stimuli such as those used in this study, the manual communications of linguistically adult deaf subjects are as efficient and successful as the verbal communications of the normal hearing subjects. While it was found that the two groups talk about much the same things, there is less intragroup commonality for the deaf subjects.
Some interesting findings concerning the amount of fingerspelling used and the conserving of motions while signing are presented along with examples showing the difficulty of translating a signed utterance to written English.
It is suggested that a referential communication setting might not be a valid tool for studying the limits of a language without making the setting artificial, and some follow-up studies are outlined
Perceptions of Down Syndrome: A growing awareness? Investigating the views of children and young people with Down Syndrome, their non-disabled peers and mothers
A body of literature has examined the understanding adults with intellectual disabilities have of their disability, their awareness of stigma and experiences of stigmatised treatment. The findings across these studies have however been difficult to reconcile. While a number of researchers reported that participants did not appear to be aware of their disability, others found that participants were aware of their disability and were sensitive to the stigmatised treatment they received from others as a result. The methods used by previous researchers have been largely verbal and it is suggested that such methods may have placed constraints on the abilities of people with intellectual disabilities to express themselves. Thus, the mixed findings may in part be accounted for by the reliance on verbally based methods of enquiry.
As a result of the previous research having been carried out with adults, little is known about the perceptions children with intellectual disabilities have of their disability or their awareness of social stigma. It is important to know about children's perceptions because early self-perceptions may have an enduring impact on a young person's mental well-being. Further, gaining insight into how the self-perceptions of children with intellectual disabilities develop during childhood may help to inform interventions designed to target the development of positive self-perceptions in children with intellectual disabilities.
This thesis will focus on children with Down syndrome. Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder and one of the most common causes of intellectual disability (Carr, 1995). People with Down syndrome have distinctive facial features, which make them immediately identifiable to others and may mean that people with Down syndrome identify themselves as different from others.
The key questions addressed by the present research are: Are children with Down syndrome aware of Down syndrome and do they hold particular feelings about it? The present study was conceptualised as an exploration of children's rudimentary awareness of their disability and the social stigma attached to it. In order to explore children's perceptions, a mixed method approach was chosen.
The quantitative component of the study developed pictorial methods to investigate the awareness and views children with Down syndrome hold of Down syndrome. Children completed three experimental 'tasks' that involved colour illustrations and photographs of unfamiliar children, some of which depicted children with Down syndrome and some in which children had no visible disability.
Twenty-eight children with Down syndrome took part. There were two age groups; a younger group aged 8 to 12 years old (n= 10) and an older group aged 13 to 17 years old (n=18). The purpose of the two age groups was to explore potential differences in awareness shown by participants with different amounts of social experience. A comparison group of children with no disability allowed the researcher to investigate whether having Down syndrome led to differences in task performance. However, since children with Down syndrome have at least some degree of intellectual impairment, it was necessary to control for cognitive development and age separately. A cognitive ability control group enabled the researcher to ensure, as far as possible, that any differences in task performance that did occur could not be attributed to differences in participants' cognitive ability. The chronological age control group was used to help ensure that potential influence of social experience and learning, acquired with age, were also controlled for. Therefore, two groups of non-disabled participants were recruited; one group were the same chronological ages as participants with Down syndrome and the other were younger in chronological age, in the hope that their verbal ability would match that of participants with Down syndrome. However, despite their younger age, the non-disabled children scored consistently higher than participants with Down syndrome on the measure of verbal ability. Consequently, a verbal ability control group was unfortunately not achieved. Instead, the non-disabled participants were split into three age groups. The first group were younger in age and their verbal ability was closer to that of participants with Down syndrome (n=14). Although not matched on verbal ability, they were still at an earlier developmental stage and served a useful comparison group in this respect. The second group were aged 8 to 12 years old (n= 27) and the third group aged 13 to 17 years (n= 26). These groups served as chronological age-matched controls. The proportion of males and females in the Down syndrome and non-disabled groups were roughly equal.
For the qualitative phase of the study, the researcher interviewed a subsample of the children's mothers' to examine what they thought about their child's understanding of Down syndrome and the social stigma attached to it. Ten mothers of children with Down syndrome took part in 1:1 semi-structured interviews. The transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
The responses of children with Down syndrome on the picture tasks indicated that they discriminated between the photographs of children with and without Down syndrome, they preferred to share social activities with the photographed children with no disability, they identified themselves as similar to the photographs of non-disabled children and they had less positive views about the photographed children with Down syndrome than those with no disability. Participants with no disability also demonstrated a similar bias in favour of non-disabled children during the tasks. Both participants with Down syndrome and non-disabled participants had positive views of themselves, although those with Down syndrome were slightly less positive about themselves than their non-disabled peers. The key finding from the experimental studies was the bias shown by all children in favour of photographs of children with no disability.
A contrasting picture emerged from the interviews with mothers. They expressed deep concerns regarding their child's growing distance from non-disabled peers as they grew older. Nevertheless, the mothers believed their children were oblivious to their disability or, at most, were aware of it but viewed it as inconsequential. Mothers reported waiting for their child to take the lead with regards discussing Down syndrome but most reported that their children rarely asked questions related to their disability and, as a result, it was rarely a topic of conversation. A sense of responsibility to talk to their children about their disability was accompanied by deep anxiety over what was best for their children regarding when and how to tell them about Down syndrome.
This research has highlighted that children with Down syndrome may be more aware of their disability and how Down syndrome is viewed socially than has been appreciated. It underscores the importance of giving children with communication difficulties a way of expressing their views. Future research should investigate the development of children's self-perceptions in relation to disability and inform ways of investigating children's growing awareness disability and related social attitudes. Such research could have an important role to play in fostering more positive ways of thinking about Down syndrome and equip them to deal with social stigma
Determinants of estimated face composite quality
Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 142-157 ).This thesis addresses the evaluation of an investigative tool commonly used by police forces around the world, namely a face composite or facial likeness. The process of constructing a composite involves a number of cognitive elements, all of which contribute to the final composite quality. This thesis examines elements of the construction process and assessment of the final composite quality in research and practice. There are three main aspects to the empirical work reported here. The first, consisting of two experimental studies, investigates the possibility of reinstating context as a way of improving composite quality. The second examines composite construction and use within the South African Police Service. The third examined the measurement of composite quality itself
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