TY - JOUR

T1 - Can people detect errors in shadows and reflections?

AU - Nightingale, Sophie

AU - Wade, Kimberley

AU - Farid, Hany

AU - Watson, Derrick

PY - 2019/11/30

Y1 - 2019/11/30

N2 - The increasing sophistication of photo-editing software means that even amateurs can create compelling doctored images. Yet recent research suggests that people’s ability to detect image manipulations is limited. Given the prevalence of manipulated images in the media, on social networking sites, and in other domains, the implications of mistaking a fake image as real, or vice versa, can be serious. In seven experiments, we tested whether people can make use of errors in shadows and reflections to determine whether or not an image has been manipulated. Our results revealed that people’s ability to identify authentic and manipulated scenes based on shadow and reflection information increased with the size of the manipulation, but overall, detection rates remained poor. Consistent with theories of incomplete visual representation, one possible reason for these findings could be that people rarely encode the details of scenes that provide useful cues as to the authenticity of images. Overall, our findings indicate that people do not readily make use of shadow and reflection cues to help determine the authenticity of images—yet it remains possible that people could make use of these cues, but they are simply unaware of how to do so.

AB - The increasing sophistication of photo-editing software means that even amateurs can create compelling doctored images. Yet recent research suggests that people’s ability to detect image manipulations is limited. Given the prevalence of manipulated images in the media, on social networking sites, and in other domains, the implications of mistaking a fake image as real, or vice versa, can be serious. In seven experiments, we tested whether people can make use of errors in shadows and reflections to determine whether or not an image has been manipulated. Our results revealed that people’s ability to identify authentic and manipulated scenes based on shadow and reflection information increased with the size of the manipulation, but overall, detection rates remained poor. Consistent with theories of incomplete visual representation, one possible reason for these findings could be that people rarely encode the details of scenes that provide useful cues as to the authenticity of images. Overall, our findings indicate that people do not readily make use of shadow and reflection cues to help determine the authenticity of images—yet it remains possible that people could make use of these cues, but they are simply unaware of how to do so.

KW - Image manipulation

KW - Digital image forensics

KW - Visual processing

KW - Human perception

U2 - 10.3758/s13414-019-01773-w

DO - 10.3758/s13414-019-01773-w

M3 - Journal article

VL - 81

SP - 2917

EP - 2943

JO - Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics

JF - Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics

SN - 1943-3921

ER -