THE EFFECT OF THE INSTRUCTIONS ON FACE RECOGNITION: ACCURACY AND EYE MOVEMENTS

Abstract

The present experiment examines how instructions (absolute judgement vs. relative judgement) affect the performance in simultaneous lineups (present perpetrator and absent perpetrator). To find out whether the participants really followed the instructions, their eye movements were recorded when they faced the photo lineup. Sixty participants (44 women and 16 men) took part in the experiment. Overall, the results showed that participants with absolute judgement instructions made significantly less inter-photograph comparisons than those with relative judgement instructions. In the present perpetrator lineup, hit rate was lower for participants with absolute judgement instructions than with relative judgement instructions. In the absent perpetrator lineup, no differences were between both instruction conditions. Furthermore, as was expected, no relationship was found between “pre” and “post” confidence and accuracy in the lineups. Moreover, we examined participants’ metamemory evaluations about their examination pattern of the photographs in the lineup. Our results did not show high incongruity between the own participants’ judgment and their visual behavior.