1. The facial recognition lab was conducted to determine whether or not the familiarity effect can be used to influence an individual's memory. In the laboratory, ten most desired faces were shown and the subject was asked to study them for an indefinite period of time. Once they clicked "Next," they were shown 20 faces in random order, ten of which were from the list they had just studied and ten of which were new faces. The subject was asked to determine which ones were new and which ones were most wanted. In theory, this should be a relatively easy task, because the subject does not necessarily need to remember that a face was on the previous list, just that they had seen it before. How familiar it was to them. So on the second day they were shown 20 faces again. If the subject was randomly assigned to the control group, they then saw the most sought-after faces mixed with ten new faces. Otherwise, they were assigned to the false memory group and saw the exact same 20 faces they had seen the day before. Subjects are assigned a “discrimination index” based on their level of accuracy. The hypothesis is that the control group will perform better (i.e., have a higher discrimination index) than members of the false memory group. In fact, the control group simply has to recognize a face. True, they don't know which group they belong to, but for the false memory group, all faces will have a certain degree of familiarity. They need to go further and actually piece together which faces were on the most wanted list and which were not.2. The independent variables in this experiment are time and foils presented to the subject. The dependent variable is the discrimination index. The...... middle of paper ......is their ability to identify the right person. This could also apply within the police force. If passport photos incorporated this type of technique, it would be much easier and much quicker for an officer to verify their identity. And if this technique was used on portraits and images presented to schoolchildren, it could potentially make the characters more recognizable. In all of these cases, using this technique could also increase empathy towards members of other races. By averaging out distractions, it's easier to focus on a profile's defining characteristics. Not only is this helpful for identification, but it can also make it easier to spot changes they may not have noticed before. It could help people better detect certain emotions in members of other races, making them more empathetic..