Retracted: Generalisability and stability of visual comparison ability

Abstract

AbstractVisual comparison – or ‘pattern‐matching’ – is a generalisable ability to compare complex visual stimuli (like fingerprints or faces) and decide whether they are from the same source or different sources (e.g., fingerprint‐matching). Visual comparison evidence can play a very influential role in court. However, little is understood about the cognitive mechanisms underlying this ability – particularly individual differences in this skill. In this paper, we present two studies where we investigate the domain‐general nature of visual comparison by exploring individual differences (N = 124 in Experiment (1) in three visual comparison tasks (toolmarks, footwear, and artificial‐prints), and the stability of visual comparison by exploring test‐retest reliability (N = 160 in Experiment (2) in six visual comparison tasks (toolmarks, footwear, fingerprints, firearms, faces, and artificial‐prints). We find that visual comparison skill generalises to toolmark and footwear comparison and identify stable performance across time – providing the first empirical evidence that visual comparison is a generalisable, reliable, and stable cognitive ability