Elyse, its very well known. I teach psychology and its part of criminal psychology, but no papers to show. Its concerns whats said before recognition by police or others and the use of modals. But thats is probably all i can really offer in many ways. Human faces are actually not easily recognised. That they or we are is simply a myth. If you see a hundred faces in an hour, they all begin to look the same.

I suggest that you consult the work of Elizabeth Loftus and Saul Kassin. This is a HUGE literature field, but those authors represent a good starting point.

As a former practicing lawyer, I wouldn’t refer to it as false memory. That’s a pejorative term. It also doesn’t account for the complexity.

Instead, I’d suggest looking for empirical studies on how the brain processes information via pattern detection and probability determination. I’d also recommend researching implicit bias.

In the former subject area there are many studies on how the brain takes in data 24/7 and sorts it to learn patterns and to help it make decisions more quickly. In the latter subject area research tracks all the way back to the 1930s and delves into unconscious assumptions and stereotype.

A classic example of the unreliability of witness recall is:

What color suit was he wearing? Blue

What color shoes? Brown I think.

It’s generally accepted that you wear brown shoes with a blue suit. However, he could have been wearing black shoes or even blue ones. Your brain probably wasn’t focused on the color shoes, but to fill the gap, it recalls blue because it is a rule it learned. It isn’t a lie or malicious. It is the brain reasoning.

Turning to implicit bias, a generalized, simplified belief about people based on the group they belong to. In rape cases, a jury was more likely to believe the purported victim if she was attractive and dressed well. Why? Because of a knowledge gap in not understanding rape is about power not sex; and a belief that thin, younger, etc women were desirable and thus older less stereotypical attractive women were less desirable thus who would want to have sex with them. If the woman didn’t dress consistent with bias, then the belief was that she deserved to be raped.

You've selected an important topic, but the building blocks for understanding it span across disciplines from neuroscience to social science.

Cheers, Tracy

Hey Elyse!

I research the cross-race effect which has been implicated in eyewitness memory errors. It is also called the other race effect, and own race bias. Check out Meissner or Hugenberg's work.

Good Luck with the paper!