Building Composite Facial Images: Effects of Feature Saliency and Delay of Construction

The utility of Identi-kit composites was evaluated for representation and identification of faces in 5 studies with 229 undergraduates. Ss constructed a composite immediately after exposure to a face or after 1 week. Other Ss attempted to identify the faces from photospreads by using the composites. The results indicated that (a) the typical lack of advantage for composites made immediately can be attributed, in part, to the inability of composite systems to portray salient features; (b) under ideal conditions, composites can yield 65%-88% correct photospread identifications; and (c) the usefulness of composites is not limited strictly by the Identi-kit system but also is a function of an interaction of standard witness parameters.