PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Expert fingerprint examiners demonstrate impressive feats of memory that may support their accuracy when making high-stakes identification decisions. Understanding the interplay between expertise and memory is therefore critical. Across two experiments, we tested fingerprint examiners and novices on their visual short-term memory for fingerprints. In Experiment 1, experts showed substantially higher memory performance compared to novices for fingerprints from their domain of expertise. In Experiment 2, we manipulated print distinctiveness and found that while both groups benefited from distinctive prints, experts still outperformed novices. This indicates that beyond stimulus qualities, expertise itself enhances short-term memory, likely through more effective organisational processing and sensitivity to meaningful patterns. Taken together, these findings shed light on the cognitive mechanisms that may explain fingerprint examiners\' superior memory performance within their domain of expertise. They further suggest that training to improve memory for diverse fingerprints could practically boost examiner performance. Given the high-stakes nature of forensic identification, characterising psychological processes like memory that potentially contribute to examiner accuracy has important theoretical and practical implications.
摘要：
专家指纹检查者展示了令人印象深刻的记忆壮举，可以在做出高风险的身份识别决定时支持他们的准确性。因此，理解专业知识和记忆之间的相互作用至关重要。在两个实验中，我们测试了指纹检查者和新手的视觉短期指纹记忆。在实验1中，与新手相比，专家对其专业领域的指纹显示出更高的内存性能。在实验2中，我们操纵了打印的独特性，发现虽然两组都受益于独特的打印，专家的表现仍然优于新手。这表明，除了刺激质量之外，专业知识本身增强了短期记忆，可能是通过更有效的组织处理和对有意义的模式的敏感性。一起来看,这些发现揭示了可以解释指纹检查者在其专业领域内卓越的记忆表现的认知机制。他们进一步建议，训练以改善不同指纹的记忆实际上可以提高考官的表现。鉴于法医鉴定的高风险，表征心理过程，如记忆，可能有助于考官的准确性具有重要的理论和实践意义。
