Associate ProfessorHelen Paterson

Project Opportunities

Title: Eyewitness memory

Summary of opportunity:

I am recruiting a PhD student to investigate the characteristics and limitations of eyewitness memory, as well as best practice interviewing techniques. 

Opportunity synopsis:

Eyewitness testimony can provide critical leads for police investigating an offence and can be extremely persuasive to juries. However, psychological research shows us that eyewitness memory may not be as accurate or reliable as the layperson may believe. 

Most research on eyewitness memory investigates memory for one-off events (e.g., a car accident or purse snatching), but unfortunately some crimes, such as domestic violence and bullying, tend to occur repeatedly. Research from our lab shows that witnesses who recall one incident from a repeated event tend to have less detailed memories than those who recall a single event, and they often confuse details from one incident with another. Consequently, witnesses of repeated events are typically rated as less credible than witnesses of a single event. Concerningly, our research also shows that they are even rated as less credible than people who have been instructed to lie about having witnessed an event. 

There are several important questions about eyewitness memory that need to be investigated including: 

1) Which situational factors and individual differences affect the accuracy and completeness of eyewitness memory?
2) What is the best way to elicit detailed and accurate memories from witnesses while preserving their psychological wellbeing?