Here is a little game that I found that demonstrates how difficult it is to recall a face that you have seen for minimal time. Though the game is a little silly, I think that it does a good job making you aware of how hard it would be for a witness to correctly recall a face in a line up, when trying to explain the criminal in order to construct a composite, or picking out a face in a mug book.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2MaIuV/faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/facemem2.html
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2MaIuV/faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/facemem2.html
I played this game expecting to not be able to remember any of the faces, but I did much better than i expected. This game allows you to take the time you need to memorize the face, but in real life you might only have a split second to see the thief, attacker, or murderer's face. I can definately understand how it would be difficult to know exactly what a person looked like when you saw them for such a short amount of time. But it was a fun little game.
Yes, the fact that it allows you to take as long as you need to memorize it is not realistic to what would actually occur at a crime scene.
I tried to play it as realistic as possible and allowing myself hardly any time to memorize the face, and when I did that, I did terrible!
It is, however, not too difficult if you allow yourself adequate time to look at the face!
I agree it wasn't really realistic. When I was getting ready to start the game I was expecting to be given only a short amount of time to memorize the face but it gave you as much time as you needed.
I tried to look at it only for a little amount of time as I would if I saw a crime committed and I missed a lot. After taking my time and looking at the face for a while I did pretty good. Overall it was a fun game!
I also thought that I wouldn't be able to get the faces correct but I actually did a pretty good job. Like a couple of the other students, I only looked at the original face for a short amount of time before making my own face. I think the game would be more realistic if it only gave you so many seconds to look at the face but it still definitely gives you an idea of how there are many different ways a person can look and how hard it is to get everything correct. It's a good example of how unreliable witnesses can be sometimes.
I basically agree with what everyone else has said. It's not very realistic that you're allowed as much time as you need to view the faces. HOwever, I did try to do it with giving myself only 30 seconds to look and it was harder to remember the more specific details. I think if they gave you a time limit on this game it'd increase the overall quality of it, but in general it gets the point across!
When it first started going I didn't know exactly what I was supposed to do and then when it stopped and told me to remember where everything out I couldn't. The first time I wasn't able to get hardly any right but after the next few times I was able to. However I do agree with everyone that you don't usually have a minute to stare at some ones face who just committed a crime and instead you may have only 10 seconds at most. This is helpful in a way so that you are ever in that situation you kind of know what details to pay attention to so when you need to you can make a composite of the profile. It was a neat game. I also think that if they created a time limit it would be more realistic to show how it would be in a real life situation. It also shows you that sometimes an eye witness testimony can't always be trusted because it’s hard to remember every detail about a person when you only have a few seconds to glance at them.
So I have to admit the first time I tried to memorize the face, I had no idea what I would be doing. So I failed miserably the first time. But the next time I did it, I took more time to memorize the face and got 100%. This is very inaccurate because it gives you as much time as you need to memorize the face, but it is an interesting activity. If you are good at memorization then you will probably do well, but if you are not, it shows you just how inaccurate your memory can be, even when you convince yourself that you are sure you're right. That is also the case with many eyewitnesses. This is a silly little game, but it does show some realistic feedback of memorization.
The game was a lot easier than I thought it would be, but I could see how it relates to a crime scene. I couldn't imagine doing that in real life.