Can a witness report hearsay evidence unintentionally? The effects of discussion on eyewitness memory

When eyewitnesses are exposed to misinformation about an event from a co-witness, they often incorporate this misinformation in their recall of the event. The current research aimed to investigate whether this memory conformity phenomenon is due to change in the witness's memory for the event, or to social pressures to conform to the co-witness's account. Participants were shown a crime video and then asked to discuss the video in groups, with some receiving misinformation about the event from their discussion partners. After a one week delay some participants were warned about possible misinformation before all participants provided their own account of the event. In Study 1, participants made remember/know judgments about the items recalled, and in Study 2 they indicated the source of their memories. Co-witness information was incorporated into participants' testimonies, and this effect was not reduced by warnings or source monitoring instructions, suggesting memory change may have occurred. However, there was some indication that remember/know judgments may help distinguish between "real" memories and co-witness information

Do professional facial image comparison training courses work?

Facial image comparison practitioners compare images of unfamiliar faces and decide whether or not they show the same person. Given the importance of these decisions for national security and criminal investigations, practitioners attend training courses to improve their face identification ability. However, these courses have not been empirically validated so it is unknown if they improve accuracy. Here, we review the content of eleven professional training courses offered to staff at national security, police, intelligence, passport issuance, immigration and border control agencies around the world. All reviewed courses include basic training in facial anatomy and prescribe facial feature (or 'morphological') comparison. Next, we evaluate the effectiveness of four representative courses by comparing face identification accuracy before and after training in novices (n = 152) and practitioners (n = 236). We find very strong evidence that short (1-hour and half-day) professional training courses do not improve identification accuracy, despite 93% of trainees believing their performance had improved. We find some evidence of improvement in a 3-day training course designed to introduce trainees to the unique feature-by-feature comparison strategy used by facial examiners in forensic settings. However, observed improvements are small, inconsistent across tests, and training did not produce the qualitative changes associated with examiners' expertise. Future research should test the benefits of longer examination-focussed training courses and incorporate longitudinal approaches to track improvements caused by mentoring and deliberate practice. In the absence of evidence that training is effective, we advise agencies to explore alternative evidence-based strategies for improving the accuracy of face identification decisions

{2,6-Bis[(di-tert-butyl­phosphino)­methyl]­phenyl}chloridonickel(II)

In the title compound, [Ni(C24H43P2)Cl], the Ni atom adopts a distorted square-planar geometry, with the P atoms of the 2,6-bis­[(di-tert-butyl­phosphino)meth­yl]phenyl ligand trans to one another. The P—Ni—P plane is twisted out of the plane of the aromatic ring by 21.97 (6)°

Redesigning photo-id to improve unfamiliar face matching performance

Viewers find it difficult to match photos of unfamiliar faces for identity. Despite this, the use of photographic ID is widespread. In this study we ask whether it is possible to improve face matching performance by replacing single photographs on ID documents with multiple photos or an average image of the bearer. In 3 experiments we compare photo-to-photo matching with photo-to-average matching (where the average is formed from multiple photos of the same person) and photo-to-array matching (where the array comprises separate photos of the same person). We consistently find an accuracy advantage for average images and photo arrays over single photos, and show that this improvement is driven by performance in match trials. In the final experiment, we find a benefit of 4-image arrays relative to average images for unfamiliar faces, but not for familiar faces. We propose that conventional photo-ID format can be improved, and discuss this finding in the context of face recognition more generally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)

Familiarity does not inhibit image-specific encoding of faces

When matching and recognising familiar faces, performance is unaffected by changes to image-specific details such as lighting, head angle, and expression. In contrast, these changes have a substantial impact on performance when faces are unfamiliar. What process can account for this difference? Recent evidence shows a memory disadvantage for remembering specific images of familiar people compared to unfamiliar people, suggesting that image invariance in familiar face processing may be supported by loss of image-specific details in memory. Here, we examine whether this cost results from loss of image specific details during encoding of familiar faces. Participants completed four tasks that required participants to retain image-specific information in working memory: duplicate detection (Experiment 1), change detection (Experiment 2), short-term recognition memory (Experiment 3 & 5), and visual search (Experiment 4). Across all experiments (combined n = 270), our results consistently show equivalent memory performance for specific images of familiar and unfamiliar faces. We conclude that familiarity does not influence encoding of pictorial details, suggesting that loss of image-specificity reported in previous work is a result of longer-term storage mechanisms

[2,6-Bis(di-tert-butyl­phosphinometh­yl)­phen­yl-κ3 P,C 1,P′](nitrato-κO)nickel(II)

The NiII atom in the title compound, [Ni(C24H43P2)(NO3)], adopts a distorted square-planar geometry with the P atoms in a trans arrangement. The compound contains a twofold rotational axis with the nitrate group offset from this axis, except for an O atom of the nitrate group, generating two positions of 50% occupancy for the other atoms of the nitrate group

Mechanism of Direct Molecular Oxygen Insertion in a Palladium(II)−Hydride Bond

The mechanism of the direct insertion of molecular oxygen into a palladium hydride bond has been elucidated using quantum mechanics (B3LYP/LACVP^(**) with the PBF continuum solvent model). The key step is found to be the abstraction of the hydrogen atom resulting in the formation of a Pd^I/HO_2 (triplet) radical pair, which then proceeds to form a singlet palladium hydroperoxo species. Potential palladium(0) pathways were explored and were found to be inaccessible. The results are in agreement with recent experimental results and are consistent with our previously predicted mechanism for an analogue system

Developmental changes in the effect of inversion: using a picture book to investigate face recognition

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