A facial recongition study examined effects of accessories changes between initial exposure to a target person and that person's appearance in a recognition task. Three accessories were manipulated; glasses and beards (present or absent) and hair style (long or short). Changes in both directions had marked negative effects upon recognition, with hit rates dropping as much as 42 percent. The various accessories had differential effects; glasses producing the smallest decrement and beards the largest. False positive errors were also increased by accessory changes. The results have implications for criminal identification systems.
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