How observant are you? If you were called to be an eye witness/identify somebody in an identity parade would you go to pieces? (Lighthearted.)

[KnopkaPixie]

This is my worst nightmare. I have been known to hold a conversation with an old friend whom I hadn't seen for a few months for over half an hour then suddenly blurt out, "You've got a beard!" It was a big bushy beard as well.

Under pressure, I could never say whether it was a red car or a green car, where I was at 3pm on Monday the 28th of September 2022...

I'm a patsy in the making!

I’d never be an eye witness because I’m so unobservent that I would walk past the crime without noticing it was happening

I would be terrible, I am rubbish with faces, even people I've met and had long conversations with 😳

I can’t recognise people in different environments.

I was in McDonalds when a school mum I speak to everyday walked in. I noticed her as she was talking on the phone but I only clocked who she actually was when she spoke to me.

You would be an absolute dream of a witness in court-unlike most!

I've been a witness in an identity parade (or whatever it's called). I failed to pick out the suspect despite having met him a number of times (fraud case). It leaves you feeling a bit of a failure, especially as I'm guessing they cost a bit to stage in terms of facilities and paying the other people to stand behind the glass. It was quite nerve wracking.

I have watched my son use the police software to create an identikit. He did really well and helped to secure a conviction. The lady who was using the software said she has used it to create a picture that local police have immediately been able to identify an individual.
I'm not sure I work be able to create my children's faces from memory using it!

I'd be terrible , police were looking for someone once at a country park , he'd had a conversation with me about my dog .
They asked me sorts of questions , i couldn't tell them anything !
I'd be even worse now I'm menopausal 😩

@NeverDropYourMooncup remind me never to cross you! Very impressed...

I grew up hypervigilant so I like to think I'd be good at it - I often work out mnemonics of car reg numbers, or make a game of describing passing people... but I think, if under pressure, I'd freak out - I was once at a party and met someone I'd done a year's Uni course with and didn't recognise her at all (to her annoyance) because I was stressing about something... we'd sat together and had laughs, but out of context, my mind blanked...

I'd be fucked! I can't even recognise people I do know, half the time

i'd be terrible. I struggle to recognise anyone out of context, such as neighbours or colleagues if I see them in the supermarket. I also walk around in a daydream most of the time so really not great at noticing details. I've just spent the whole day with DH, and had dinner with him and teenage DD, but they're now watching TV in a different room, and I have absolutely no recollection of what either of them are wearing.

Yesss! I'll lose DH in the supermarket, and, if I decide that I'd quite like to see him again, I try to remember what he was wearing... nah... not happening... 🤷‍♀️

I had to describe someone to the police once, after spending a couple of hours with them. Later I realised I had a photo of them - when I looked at the photo I realised my description was wrong in basic things like hair colour and height!

If I try and describe in my head someone I see regularly, say a colleague, I am pretty useless. Details like eye colour, no chance. I have no idea how photofits get done, when the victim has only seen the perpetrator briefly, and has to describe things like nose shape.

I suspect I would be awful. It's a good thing I wasn't around in the days of the hangman as I'd totally send the wrong person to the gallows.

Neil de Grasse Tyson!
Adore this man.
He's an absolute genius 😍

I used to work for an organisation that ran accident investigation courses. One of the exercises was to get them out ostensibly to do a practical then something would happen and they'd be told to go in and write down exactly what happened. If more than 1 in 20 got it all right it would be an exception. The real point was to show how unreliable eyewitnesses are.

I used to be very observant, especially when it came to clothes, I could remember what people were wearing at parties or other occasions from years ago. Don't feel I'm as sharp anymore, although a couple of years ago did recognise a woman who had been reported as missing on a local FB group, spotted her from a moving bus on a busy London bridge, so don't feel I've totally lost it!

Short term, I’m amazing at this. I was sexually assaulted as a teenager and remembered the suspect in such detail that when I gave my statement an hour later, and then the detective literally drove past him by coincidence on their way from my flat they were able to make an immediate arrest.

If I’d had to do it a week later I’d not have been able to remember a thing about him.

I'd be useless. I don't really pay much attention to strangers out and about. I could sit next to someone on a train for hours and not be able to tell you much about them.

I’m extremely good at recognising obscure actors I last saw in a tiny part 20 years ago when they were decades younger and had a beard/blonde wig etc, but while that might mean I was good at picking people out of a lineup, I’m not sure it would make me accurate at describing them, or remembering their clothes.p, height etc.

I'd be terrible, I never recognise people out of context and always get people coming up to me and saying hello and I have no idea who they are (but I just say hello and smile because I'm too embarrassed to admit it). And I pay little attention to what's around me, especially if I'm waiting around as I'd be on my phone. Also I'm generally just not interested in people around me and don't care what they get up to (I'm in a high crime part of London), and wouldn't want the hassle of being a witness so I'd never put myself forward as one either.

I was going to mention Elizabeth Loftus and the amazing research she did on eye witness statements, how fragile they can be and biased by vocabulary used during prosecution questioning.

Yes, mentioning Loftus triggered a core memory there. For those who don't want to google the study. Loftus tested witnesses with the same footage of a car crash and simply worded the question differently for each group. 'How fast was the car going when it crashed' vs Collided vs smashed etc. Perhaps predictably, the estimated speed was higher, the more violent the question's language. This is one of the reasons people say not to use 'leading' questions with witnesses, they are very easy to influence.

I have face blindness. Would be great at remembering clothing/accents and details (what bag someone was carrying, if they had a small badge on, earrings or other jewellery, logos on clothing or shoes, for example) as I have to pay attention to all of this in every situation to compensate for not being able to recognise faces.

My DH is always amused that I can't recognise famous actors (even those I love) from one role to the next. Absolutely no chance of me picking someone out of a lineup!

I'd be rubbish, I'm not good with faces or names. I would remember some random facts very accurately but key facts would be rubbish.

I've done an old fashioned ID parade where they all lined up and I had to walk behind a screen to ID him. I was a teenager and he made himself look really different. Unshaven. Grew his hair and left it unkempt. He did his best not to look like himself. I did choose him though but mostly because use he was the only one shaking like a leaf looking like he was about to shit himself. He got convicted as well. Obviously this was a very long time ago.