Emma Portch

Articles by: Emma Portch

The problem with using ‘super recognisers’ to spot criminals in a crowd

8th November 2018

Emma Portch, Bournemouth University

ANALYSIS: So-called super recognisers are said to possess exceptional face recognition abilities, but are they really as super as they are made out to be? Emma Portch of Bournemouth University explores the evidence.

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Emma Portch
Lecturer, Bournemouth University
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[email protected]

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Following her undergraduate degree in Psychology (Royal Holloway), Emma completed an MSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. She then moved to Leeds, where she completed a one-year research post, assessing the relationship between cognitive interviewing techniques, verbal overshadowing, and computerised facial composite construction. She stayed in Leeds to complete her PhD. Her thesis explored the influence of (language-anchored) conceptual knowledge on the interpretation of facial expressions of emotion. In 2016 she then joined the University of Manchester as a member of research staff and worked on a two-year project to assess whether the novel application of motion parameters improve the recognisability of facial composites. She started her lectureship at Bournemouth University in January 2018. Emma's research interests centre around the forensic applications of face recognition. Much of her work explores how psychological factors impact upon the construction and subsequent recognition of computerised facial composites, or EvoFITs (frequently produced during police investigations). She is currently involved in projects that investigate the impact of cognitive interviewing mnemonics, facial visualisation techniques, facial animation, and individual target-face characteristics (attractiveness and disguise). Since joining Bournemouth University she has also been involved in work that seeks to address the potential use of super recognisers for forensically-relevant face recognition. In order to address this question it is important to first understand the potential limitations, and multi-faceted nature of these individuals' abilities.