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"They all look alike to me": DHS Fellow aims to improve cross-race face recognition

(Jan. 19, 2007)

    Preventing terrorism not only requires advanced technology but also good detective work. One component is the ability to recognize "persons of interest" - the research focus of 2006 DHS Fellow Kyle Susa.

    A Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso, Kyle is developing ways to enable border patrol agents and transportation officials, among others, to recognize faces of potential suspects. Specifically, he is concerned with cross-race effect (CRE) - the inability to recognize faces that are from a different race or ethnicity than our own.

    "Research shows that the folklore "they all look alike to me" is credible. We are about 1.4 times more likely to correctly identify an own-race face, in comparison to our other- race faces," says Kyle. "We have traced this impairment to the recollection aspect of memory."

    Kyle seeks to develop training to enable improved cross-race recognition abilities. "It's foreseeable that this training could help improve face recognition for those asked to recognize faces off of a photo I.D. or military personnel who are told to be on the look-out for a potential terrorist."