• King Henry I Street, King Henry Building

    PO1 2DY Portsmouth

    United Kingdom

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

Promoting honesty in child witnesses
Interviewing vulnerable witnesses
Perceptions of vulnerable witnesses in the courtroom
The detection of malingering

Personal profile

Biography

My research involves liaison with legal professionals, police officers and social workers. I have investigated numerous issues regarding the detection of deception including nonverbal cues to deceit, the analysis and application of Criteria-Based Content Analysis and the perceptions of people with regard to cues to deceit. I took a two-year PostDoc Research Associate post at the University of Wales, Swansea working on a Leverhulme Trust funded project entitled, 'The influence of sleep loss, personality and confidence on eyewitness suggestibility'. I am currently working on projects including (i)  the detection of malingering in the medico-legal setting, (ii) cognitive load as experienced by investigiative interviewers and the effect of cognitive load on interviewers' performance (with Pam Hanway), (iii)  training police officers to self-assess their investigative interviews with vulnerable witnesses to mitigate against skills fade and (iv) interviewing to elicit accurate information from pre-school aged children (with Mikaela Magnusson).  I am the Head of the Department of Psychology and a Reader in Psychology and Law.

Research Interests

The investigative interviewing of children and vulnerable adults.

Detecting deception, and promoting honesty, in child witnesses.

Detecting malingering in the medico-legal setting.

The analysis and application of Statement Validity Assessment (and more specifically Criteria-Based Content Analysis) as a method for judging credibility in transcripts of investigative interviews.

The lie detection accuracy of lay people, professionals and offenders.

Cues to deceit for vulnerable populations (e.g. children, second language speakers).

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Education/Academic qualification

Ph.D., Deception and it's detection in children and adults via verbal and nonverbal cues, University of Portsmouth

Award Date: 31 May 1997

External positions

PostDoc Research Fellow, Swansea University

Keywords

  • BF Psychology
  • Investigative interviewing
  • Judging credibility
  • Malingering
  • Vulnerable witnesses

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