Epilogue on Verbal Overshadowing Effect: How Face-Naming an Unfamiliar Face Can Bypass the Deleterious Effect of Verbal Description?
Description
Describing an unfamiliar face can impede its later recognition. This phenomenon, known as the verbal overshadowing effect, is one of the most problematic issues affecting eyewitness testimony. This study examined whether generating a name for a target face could mitigate VOE and enhance lineup identification accuracy. Participants were assigned to one of four face naming conditions: (a) immediately after viewing the target person, (b) just before describing the target face, (c) prior to the identification task, or (d) no face naming (control). Results showed that participants who generated a name immediately before describing the face showed significantly higher identification accuracy than those in other naming conditions or the control group. Face naming appears to strengthen familiarity, making facial representation more robust against the disruptive effects of verbalization. These findings introduce the “face name generating effect” as a promising cognitive intervention for preserving the eyewitness memory integrity.