The
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Abstracts
Contextual information renders experts vulnerable to making erroneous
identifications
Itiel E. Dror,
David Charlton, & Ailsa Peron
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 used to positively identify 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 fingerprint experts are vulnerable to make erroneous matches.
Dror, I.E., Charlton, D., & Peron A. (2006). Contextual information renders experts vulnerable to making erroneous identifications Forensic Science International, 156 (1), 74-78.
