Researcher's Techniques May Help Authorities Find Missing Children

Newswise — If you saw the photo of a missing child in the newspaper or on TV, would you recognize that child if he or she was standing next to you in the line at the grocery store?

The answer to that question may depend on the appearance of the child in the photo you saw, shows research by Vicki S. Gier, assistant professor of psychology at Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus. Gier leads ground-breaking research into the subject of adult recognition of children's faces under different appearances.

Gier and her co-author, David S. Kreiner, of the University of Central Missouri presented their research study, "Memory of Children's Faces by Adults: Appearance Does Matter," at the Association for Psychological Science Convention and was recently published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, which can be accessed online at www.interscience.wiley.com.

Gier's research sought to determine what type of photo is most likely to help in the recognition of a missing child. In the 2007 research, adult participants viewed photos of children similar to their school photos, along with photos of the children appearing unkempt, tired, bruised, sad or angry. Afterward, participants in the study were asked to recognize the children from different photos in which their appearances had been altered. Gier said results could lead to better methods for the public to recover missing children. "If an adult sees a picture of child who is clean in appearance and at a later time sees another picture of the same child with the same appearance, then recognition is good," Gier said. "Likewise, if an adult sees a picture of a child with a dirty face and later sees a picture of the same child with a dirty face, then recognition is also good. However, if the child appears very differently between their original appearance and the later appearance, recognition is poor."

Her research results could lead authorities to find more missing children.According to the U.S. Justice Department's Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrownaway Children (NISMART) published in 2002, there were an estimated 58,200 child victims of non-family abductions during the study year of 1999, the most recent national estimates available on missing children. Of that number, 115 were stereotypical kidnappings. More than 200,000 other children were the victims of family abductions during the same period.

Until now, face recognition studies have focused on recognizing the adult perpetrator, while studies on recognizing a child's face under different appearances is lacking, Gier said.

Gier got the idea for her research after watching an episode of the CBS television show "Without a Trace."

"At the end of the show, they always show a photograph of a real person who is missing," she recalled. "On this particular evening, the missing person was a young child. I noticed that the picture which had been given to the FBI was a school-like photo. The little girl was clean, well-groomed and smiling."

"So, I wondered what picture my sons would give to the police if, heaven forbid, any of my granddaughters were missing or abducted," she said.

One question kept repeating itself in her mind, and she knew she had to ask others to see if her hunch was correct.

"My question was: 'If you, as a person in the community, happened to see a missing child with his or her perpetrator and that child is dirty, has been physically or sexually abused, has bruising on the face, then would you be able to recognize that child from a photo of him or her smiling, clean and happy?'"

She surmised the answer most likely would be 'no.' It was at that moment she realized research needed to be conducted in the area of child facial recognition to see if she was correct.

Gier conducted her research last summer when she was at the University of West Florida, prior to joining the MSU-Meridian's Division of Arts & Sciences in the fall.

All 88 adult participants in the study viewed photos of children that were either "cleaned up" versions of the child or "dirtied up," meaning make-up was applied to give some of the children the appearance of being dirty, tired, bruised, sad or angry.

Then, participants were shown photos in a recognition phase and asked to indicate whether or not each photo had been seen in the study phase. In a second experiment, time phases of 10 minutes, three weeks, six weeks and 12 weeks were added between the study phase and the recognition phase.

While the results of her research were not surprising to Gier, they have been to others.

"Everyone who has heard the results of the study, including many at last May's convention, have been shocked, almost scared, that they did not think of this in relation to their own children and grandchildren," said Gier.

Based on the results of the research, "perhaps parents should have both types of pictures (clean and dirty) available in case their child is abducted or is missing," Gier and Kreiner wrote in their study. "If both types of facial appearances were shown to the public or possible eyewitnesses, the chances may increase of recognizing the child."

They also suggest it may be beneficial if AMBER Alerts " the nation's emergency broadcast response system used in the most serious child-abduction cases " post pictures of both appearances of a child so that the public can be made aware of the difference in appearance that could occur if the child is seen in public.

Gier is continuing her research into child facial recognition. She is seeking sponsors for her research and for Child Identification Cards, which she hopes to have printed to pass out to area parents. The cards will hold two images of a child, as well as the pertinent information about a child. Most cards currently available only allow for one photograph.