Logo image
Back
The Nature of Expertise in Fingerprint Matching: Experts Can Do a Lot with a Little
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

The Nature of Expertise in Fingerprint Matching: Experts Can Do a Lot with a Little

Matthew B. Thompson and Jason M. Tangen
PloS one, Vol.9(12), e114759
2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114759
PMCID: PMC4269392
PMID: 25517509
pdf
Published840.27 kBDownloadView
CC BY V4.0,  Open Access

Abstract

Multidisciplinary Sciences Science & Technology Science & Technology - Other Topics
Expert decision making often seems impressive, even miraculous. People with genuine expertise in a particular domain can perform quickly and accurately, and with little information. In the series of experiments presented here, we manipulate the amount of "information'' available to a group of experts whose job it is to identify the source of crime scene fingerprints. In Experiment 1, we reduced the amount of information available to experts by inverting fingerprint pairs and adding visual noise. There was no evidence for an inversion effect-experts were just as accurate for inverted prints as they were for upright prints-but expert performance with artificially noisy prints was impressive. In Experiment 2, we separated matching and nonmatching print pairs in time. Experts were conservative, but they were still able to discriminate pairs of fingerprints that were separated by five-seconds, even though the task was quite different from their everyday experience. In Experiment 3, we separated the print pairs further in time to test the long-term memory of experts compared to novices. Long-term recognition memory for experts and novices was the same, with both performing around chance. In Experiment 4, we presented pairs of fingerprints quickly to experts and novices in a matching task. Experts were more accurate than novices, particularly for similar nonmatching pairs, and experts were generally more accurate when they had more time. It is clear that experts can match prints accurately when there is reduced visual information, reduced opportunity for direct comparison, and reduced time to engage in deliberate reasoning. These findings suggest that non-analytic processing accounts for a substantial portion of the variance in expert fingerprint matching accuracy. Our conclusion is at odds with general wisdom in fingerprint identification practice and formal training, and at odds with the claims and explanations that are offered in court during expert testimony.

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Source: InCites

Metrics

2 File views/ downloads
22 Record Views
37 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Citation topics
2 Chemistry
2.244 Chemometrics
2.244.1784 Forensic Spectroscopy
Web Of Science research areas
Psychology
ESI research areas
Psychiatry/Psychology
Logo image