The
Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
Abstracts
Itiel E. Dror
& David Charlton
Expert latent fingerprint
examiners were presented with fingerprints taken from real criminal cases. Half
of the prints had been previously judged as individualizations and the other
half as exclusions. We re-presented the same prints to the same experts who had
judged them previously, but provided biasing contextual information in both the
individualizations and exclusions. A control set of individualizations and
exclusions was also re-presented as part of the study. The control set had no
biasing contextual information associated with it. Each expert examined a total
of eight past decisions. Two-thirds of the experts made inconsistent decisions.
The findings are discussed in terms of psychological and cognitive
vulnerabilities.
Link
to Biometric
Identification
Dror, I.E. & Charlton, D. (2006). Why experts make errors. Journal of Forensic Identification, 56 (4), 600-616.
