‘We make
recognition
decisions about
faces every day.’
Dr JAMAL
MANSOUR
LECTURER, PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY
My research concerns how people recognise faces
and the cognitive and social factors that affect
memory for faces.
An incorrect decision can lead to a criminal
remaining free to commit further crimes or an
innocent person going to jail. Eyewitnesses play a
key role in our criminal justice system; I strive to
ensure the criminal justice system can obtain as
accurate and reliable eyewitness evidence
as possible.
A third-year undergraduate class on memory
inspired me. I felt my memory worked pretty
well but was startled to learn how often we
remember events and people incorrectly—
and shocked to learn the consequences of
some memory errors. For example, eyewitness
identification errors are a primary cause of
wrongful convictions.
E
R A T I N G
O
L
B
We make recognition decisions
about faces every day — and
of course we are sometimes
successful, sometimes not.
It is especially critical that
eyewitnesses to crime
make accurate recognition
decisions. The police often ask
eyewitnesses to look at a face
or faces and indicate whether
they see the perpetrator of the
crime they witnessed.
WOMEN
RESEARCHERS
INSPIRING
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