The effect of photofit-type faces on recognition memory : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in psychology at Massey University

Abstract

Two attempts were made to replicate the results of Ellis, Davies, and Shepherd (1978) who showed that the addition of simulated photofit lines and randomly placed lines on photographs of faces caused a decrease in recognition memory for those faces. In the first experiment, three groups of subjects were shown 20 slides each of faces with no lines, photofit-type lines or random lines. Immediately afterwards they were shown the same faces mixed with 20 distractors, their task being to indicate whether a face had been previously seen. The addition of lines had no statistically significant effects on memory. In the second study, the number of faces initially shown was increased from 20 to 35 and subjects had to identify the previously seen faces from a set of 70 faces either immediately or following a three week delay. Again, the addition of lines to the faces produced no significant decrements in recognition rates, but there was a main effect for delay. However, trends seen in the recognition measures used for both studies suggested that the addition of lines may have a small effect on recognition memory but not enough to always reach statistical significance in single studies. The implications of the results for the use of the photofit-kit in recognition memory studies are discussed.