1
|
Robson SG, Searston RA, Thompson MB, Tangen JM. A guide to measuring expert performance in forensic pattern matching. Behav Res Methods 2024; 56:6223-6247. [PMID: 38485882 PMCID: PMC11335824 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-024-02354-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 01/30/2024] [Indexed: 08/21/2024]
Abstract
Decisions in forensic science are often binary. A firearms expert must decide whether a bullet was fired from a particular gun or not. A face comparison expert must decide whether a photograph matches a suspect or not. A fingerprint examiner must decide whether a crime scene fingerprint belongs to a suspect or not. Researchers who study these decisions have therefore quantified expert performance using measurement models derived largely from signal detection theory. Here we demonstrate that the design and measurement choices researchers make can have a dramatic effect on the conclusions drawn about the performance of forensic examiners. We introduce several performance models - proportion correct, diagnosticity ratio, and parametric and non-parametric signal detection measures - and apply them to forensic decisions. We use data from expert and novice fingerprint comparison decisions along with a resampling method to demonstrate how experimental results can change as a function of the task, case materials, and measurement model chosen. We also graphically show how response bias, prevalence, inconclusive responses, floor and ceiling effects, case sampling, and number of trials might affect one's interpretation of expert performance in forensics. Finally, we discuss several considerations for experimental and diagnostic accuracy studies: (1) include an equal number of same-source and different-source trials; (2) record inconclusive responses separately from forced choices; (3) include a control comparison group; (4) counterbalance or randomly sample trials for each participant; and (5) present as many trials to participants as is practical.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Samuel G Robson
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
- School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, Australia.
| | - Rachel A Searston
- School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Matthew B Thompson
- School of Psychology, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia
- Centre for Biosecurity and One Health, Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia
| | - Jason M Tangen
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Liu M, Teng X, Jiang J. Instrumental music training relates to intensity assessment but not emotional prosody recognition in Mandarin. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0309432. [PMID: 39213300 PMCID: PMC11364251 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0309432] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2024] [Accepted: 08/12/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Building on research demonstrating the benefits of music training for emotional prosody recognition in nontonal languages, this study delves into its unexplored influence on tonal languages. In tonal languages, the acoustic similarity between lexical tones and music, along with the dual role of pitch in conveying lexical and affective meanings, create a unique interplay. We evaluated 72 participants, half of whom had extensive instrumental music training, with the other half serving as demographically matched controls. All participants completed an online test consisting of 210 Chinese pseudosentences, each designed to express one of five emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, or neutrality. Our robust statistical analyses, which included effect size estimates and Bayesian factors, revealed that music and nonmusic groups exhibit similar abilities in identifying the emotional prosody of various emotions. However, the music group attributed higher intensity ratings to emotional prosodies of happiness, fear, and anger compared to the nonmusic group. These findings suggest that while instrumental music training is not related to emotional prosody recognition, it does appear to be related to perceived emotional intensity. This dissociation between emotion recognition and intensity evaluation adds a new piece to the puzzle of the complex relationship between music training and emotion perception in tonal languages.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mengting Liu
- Department of Art, Harbin Conservatory of Music, Harbin, China
| | - Xiangbin Teng
- Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China
| | - Jun Jiang
- Music College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Cambronero-Delgadillo AJ, Nachtnebel SJ, Körner C, Gilchrist ID, Höfler M. Interruption in visual search: a systematic review. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1384441. [PMID: 38807959 PMCID: PMC11130479 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384441] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2024] [Accepted: 04/24/2024] [Indexed: 05/30/2024] Open
Abstract
Visual search, the process of trying to find a target presented among distractors, is a much-studied cognitive task. Less well-studied is the condition in which the search task is interrupted before the target is found. The consequences of such interruptions in visual search have been investigated across various disciplines, which has resulted in diverse and at times contradictory findings. The aim of this systematic review is to provide a more cohesive understanding of the effects of interruptions in visual search. For this purpose, we identified 28 studies that met our inclusion criteria. To facilitate a more organized and comprehensive analysis, we grouped the studies based on three dimensions: the search environment, the interruption aftermath, and the type of the interrupting event. While interruptions in visual search are variable and manifest differently across studies, our review provides a foundational scheme for a more cohesive understanding of the subject. This categorization serves as a starting point for exploring potential future directions, which we delineate in our conclusions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Iain D. Gilchrist
- School of Psychological Science, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Margit Höfler
- Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
- Department of Dementia Research and Nursing Science, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Robson SG, Tangen JM. The invisible 800-pound gorilla: expertise can increase inattentional blindness. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2023; 8:33. [PMID: 37247030 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-023-00486-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 05/05/2023] [Indexed: 05/30/2023] Open
Abstract
People can fail to notice objects and events in their visual environment when their attention is engaged elsewhere. This phenomenon is known as inattentional blindness, and its consequences can be costly for important real-world decisions. However, not noticing certain visual information could also signal expertise in a domain. In this study, we compared professional fingerprint analysts and novices on a fingerprint matching task in which we covertly placed an image of a gorilla into one of the prints. This gorilla was either small, or large, but always embedded in a way that made it largely irrelevant to the primary task. We found that analysts were more likely than the novices to miss the large gorilla. We interpret this finding not as a flaw in how these experts make decisions, but most likely an expression of their expertise; instead of processing more information they filter out irrelevant information and constrain their attention to what is important.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Samuel G Robson
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia.
- School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, 2052, Australia.
| | - Jason M Tangen
- School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Ivy S, Rohovit T, Stefanucci J, Stokes D, Mills M, Drew T. Visual expertise is more than meets the eye: an examination of holistic visual processing in radiologists and architects. J Med Imaging (Bellingham) 2023; 10:015501. [PMID: 36710958 PMCID: PMC9871605 DOI: 10.1117/1.jmi.10.1.015501] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 01/02/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Purpose One of the dominant behavioral markers of visual-expert search strategy, holistic visual processing (HVP), suggests that experts process information from a larger region of space in conjunction with a more focused gaze pattern to improve search speed and accuracy. To date, extant literature suggests that visual search expertise is domain specific, including HVP and its associated behaviors. Approach The current study is the first to use eye tracking to directly measure the HVP strategies of two expert groups, radiologists and architects, in comparison to one another and a novice control. Results In doing so, we replicated and extended this prior research: visual expertise is domain specific. However, our eye-tracking data indicate that contrary to this prior work, HVP strategies are transferable across domains. Yet, despite the transfer of HVP strategies, there is neither reduced search time nor greater accuracy in visual search outside of an expert's domain. Conclusions Therefore, our data suggest that HVP behaviors are a particular form of visual search mechanism that, outside of an expert's native search-ecology, are not necessarily conducive to more general visual search success. It is in addition to explicit knowledge of an expert's domain, how to search, and where to search, that HVP strategies are their most effective for visual search success.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Spencer Ivy
- University of Utah, Department of Philosophy, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
| | - Taren Rohovit
- University of Oregon, Department of Psychology, Eugene, Oregon, United States
| | | | - Dustin Stokes
- University of Utah, Department of Philosophy, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
| | - Megan Mills
- University of Utah, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Utah, United States
| | - Trafton Drew
- University of Utah, Department of Psychology, Utah, United States
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Bécue A, Champod C. Interpol review of fingermarks and other body impressions 2019 - 2022). Forensic Sci Int Synerg 2022; 6:100304. [PMID: 36636235 PMCID: PMC9830181 DOI: 10.1016/j.fsisyn.2022.100304] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Andy Bécue
- University of Lausanne, School of Criminal Justice, Faculty of Law Criminal Justice and Public Administration, Switzerland
| | - Christophe Champod
- University of Lausanne, School of Criminal Justice, Faculty of Law Criminal Justice and Public Administration, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Grilli MD, Sheldon S. Autobiographical event memory and aging: older adults get the gist. Trends Cogn Sci 2022; 26:1079-1089. [PMID: 36195539 PMCID: PMC9669242 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.09.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/11/2022] [Revised: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
We propose that older adults' ability to retrieve episodic autobiographical events, although often viewed through a lens of decline, reveals much about what is preserved and prioritized in cognitive aging. Central to our proposal is the idea that the so-called gist of an autobiographical event is not only spared with normal aging but also well adapted to serve memory-guided behavior in older age. To support our proposal, we review cognitive and brain evidence indicating an age-related shift toward gist memory. We then discuss why this shift likely arises from more than age-related decline and instead partly reflects a natural, arguably adaptive, outcome of experience, motivation, and mode-of-thinking factors. Our proposal reveals an upside of age-related memory changes and identifies important research questions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Matthew D Grilli
- Department of Psychology, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
| | - Signy Sheldon
- Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 1G1, Canada.
| |
Collapse
|