Rape victims on trial: understanding police officers' and jurors' beliefs about sexual assault, victims, and perpetrators. This project will enhance justice in cases of sexual assault. This project will discover the extra-legal factors that influence how victims of sexual assault are viewed by police and jurors, and test two ways to reduce the influence of these misconceptions in the criminal justice system.
Repeated questions in children's event recall: Testing competing explanations. One of the threats to a healthy start in life for Australian children, and one which imposes substantial financial and emotional cost on the Australian community, is child abuse and neglect. This project addresses a key stumbling block in obtaining evidence from child victims/witnesses - their tendency to give inconsistent testimony under repeated questioning. It seeks to understand the conditions under which inconsis ....Repeated questions in children's event recall: Testing competing explanations. One of the threats to a healthy start in life for Australian children, and one which imposes substantial financial and emotional cost on the Australian community, is child abuse and neglect. This project addresses a key stumbling block in obtaining evidence from child victims/witnesses - their tendency to give inconsistent testimony under repeated questioning. It seeks to understand the conditions under which inconsistency is minimized, as a basis for developing empirically and theoretically based ways to optimise the accuracy and legal utility of children's testimony. Read moreRead less
Understanding Promises: Legal and Everyday Implications. This research will lead to a better understanding of the effects of keeping and breaking promises in different contexts. It will examine their potential beneficial function in peer relationships and their propensity to increase the quality of children's testimony. Keeping promises may be appropriate for fostering friendships but may have serious consequences when the information that is kept secret involves child abuse, for example. Inform ....Understanding Promises: Legal and Everyday Implications. This research will lead to a better understanding of the effects of keeping and breaking promises in different contexts. It will examine their potential beneficial function in peer relationships and their propensity to increase the quality of children's testimony. Keeping promises may be appropriate for fostering friendships but may have serious consequences when the information that is kept secret involves child abuse, for example. Information from this research is expected to contribute to more positive peer relationships and to children's honest disclosures of adult's (e.g. child abuse) and peer's (e.g. bullying) transgressive conduct.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100357
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$427,320.00
Summary
What determines your face identification accuracy? Accurate face identification underpins normal social functioning and important identity verification procedures in society, government and the justice system. However, there is little understanding of the cognitive processes that give rise to individual differences in face identification. This project aims to develop a new cognitive model that characterises how holistic and part-based processing combine to determine individual differences in fac ....What determines your face identification accuracy? Accurate face identification underpins normal social functioning and important identity verification procedures in society, government and the justice system. However, there is little understanding of the cognitive processes that give rise to individual differences in face identification. This project aims to develop a new cognitive model that characterises how holistic and part-based processing combine to determine individual differences in face identification. Expected benefits include advancing knowledge of human face perception, and evidence-based training and personnel selection tools to improve decision accuracy, help police prevent crime and terrorism, and avoid wrongful conviction of innocent suspects.Read moreRead less
Checking the validity of photographic identification documents: Enhancing the performance of security personnel through increased understanding of unfamiliar face processing. The ability to accurately establish the identity of an individual is central to the national security of Australia. Identity checking often relies on facial photographs contained on passports and other documents. Despite the introduction of automated systems, the decision whether a photograph is of a person rests with human ....Checking the validity of photographic identification documents: Enhancing the performance of security personnel through increased understanding of unfamiliar face processing. The ability to accurately establish the identity of an individual is central to the national security of Australia. Identity checking often relies on facial photographs contained on passports and other documents. Despite the introduction of automated systems, the decision whether a photograph is of a person rests with human operators. Research by CI has demonstrated that this task is difficult and error prone. The proposed research seeks to improve performance by developing a fuller understanding of the nature of the task and the limits of the operators' abilities and by testing possible training and selection procedures.Read moreRead less
Faces in context: A new ecological paradigm for person identification. Accurate face recognition is critical to normal social functioning of individuals and identity management processes that underpin a secure and fair Australia. Current understanding is based on tests that do not capture the rich context surrounding person identification in daily life. This project aims to introduce new methods for observing person identification in daily life and real-world tasks that are critical to border se ....Faces in context: A new ecological paradigm for person identification. Accurate face recognition is critical to normal social functioning of individuals and identity management processes that underpin a secure and fair Australia. Current understanding is based on tests that do not capture the rich context surrounding person identification in daily life. This project aims to introduce new methods for observing person identification in daily life and real-world tasks that are critical to border security, criminal investigations and the justice system. Expected outcomes include an integrated framework for person identification describing the cognitive mechanisms that link faces to surrounding visual context and the viewer’s background knowledge. Benefits in forensic, security and legal settings are expected.Read moreRead less
Towards optimal face identification systems. This project aims to improve face identification accuracy at a system level. Reliable face identification is critical in security, police and judicial processes. The project will inform policy in the recruitment, training and workflow design underpinning the secure issuance of Australian passports. Expected outcomes of the project will include social and economic gains such as improved efficiency and reliability of key government services. The knowled ....Towards optimal face identification systems. This project aims to improve face identification accuracy at a system level. Reliable face identification is critical in security, police and judicial processes. The project will inform policy in the recruitment, training and workflow design underpinning the secure issuance of Australian passports. Expected outcomes of the project will include social and economic gains such as improved efficiency and reliability of key government services. The knowledge gained as a result of the project in perceptual and cognitive processes will strengthen legal systems and national security by minimising the risk of identification errors in critical roles.Read moreRead less
Face-space: linking three-dimensional shape and human perception across changing viewing conditions. People, and increasingly machines, use faces to identify and interact with people. One source of information available for this is the three-dimensional (3D) shape of the face. This information, unlike a photograph, does not change with lighting and viewpoint. This project will link measurements of face shape to the perceived similarities and differences between faces we use to make decisions. ....Face-space: linking three-dimensional shape and human perception across changing viewing conditions. People, and increasingly machines, use faces to identify and interact with people. One source of information available for this is the three-dimensional (3D) shape of the face. This information, unlike a photograph, does not change with lighting and viewpoint. This project will link measurements of face shape to the perceived similarities and differences between faces we use to make decisions. This will facilitate the use of 3D databases in diverse applications including establishing identity, making facial reconstructions of victims of crime or disaster, making databases searchable, computer animation, archaeology, and plastic surgery. In particular the work will make physical databases relevant to human perception. Read moreRead less
Optimising recall in children's testimony: The challenge of repeated questions. One of the threats to a healthy start in life for Australian children, and one which imposes substantial financial and emotional cost on the Australian community, is child abuse and neglect. This project addresses a key stumbling block in obtaining evidence from child victims/witnesses- their tendency to inconsistent testimony under repeated questioning. It seeks to understand the conditions under which inconsiste ....Optimising recall in children's testimony: The challenge of repeated questions. One of the threats to a healthy start in life for Australian children, and one which imposes substantial financial and emotional cost on the Australian community, is child abuse and neglect. This project addresses a key stumbling block in obtaining evidence from child victims/witnesses- their tendency to inconsistent testimony under repeated questioning. It seeks to understand the conditions under which inconsistency is minimized, as a basis for developing empirically and theoretically based ways to optimise the accuracy and legal utility of children's testimony. As a signatory to the United National Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990), Australia has a legal as well as a moral responsibility in this regard.Read moreRead less
Information sampling in superior face identifiers. This project aims to develop a theoretical understanding of perceptual processing that gives rise to the skill of face identification. The project intends to use innovative eye-tracking methods in order to pinpoint the visual information used by superior face identifiers, and capture qualitative differences in their visual processing. Expected outcomes include data-driven training and recruitment methods that can improve performance of professio ....Information sampling in superior face identifiers. This project aims to develop a theoretical understanding of perceptual processing that gives rise to the skill of face identification. The project intends to use innovative eye-tracking methods in order to pinpoint the visual information used by superior face identifiers, and capture qualitative differences in their visual processing. Expected outcomes include data-driven training and recruitment methods that can improve performance of professional face identification experts. Intended benefits include improved efficiency and reliability in identity verification processes, legal guidelines for interpreting identification evidence in court and training interventions for people with acquired and developmental impairments in face processing ability.Read moreRead less