Resume

• 2019

  University of Regina

  Royal Canadian Mounted Police

  University of Regina

  Research Specialist

  Farm Credit Canada

  Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

  University of Toronto

  Toronto

  Canada Area

  Postdoctorate Fellow

  Regina

  SK

  Doctoral Student

  University of Regina

  University of Regina

  Social Psychology - PSYC. 220

  Sessional Lecturer

  $20

  000/year for up to 4 year award to support doctoral studies (declined).

  Social Science and Humanities Research Council

  Ontario Graduate Scholarship

  $15

  000 award to support students in a Masters program

  Ontario Provincial Government

• 2013

  Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

  Experimental and Applied Psychology

  University of Regina

• 2012

  Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre

  Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre

  Teaching Assistant

  Introduction to Psychology PSYC 101\nAbnormal Psychology PSYC 333\nForensic Psychology PSYC 321

  University of Regina

• 2010

  Carleton University

  Farm Credit Canada

  University of Regina

  Research Assistant

  Ottawa

  Canada Area

  Royal Canadian Mounted Police

  Carleton University

  University of Regina

  Forensic Psychology - PSYC. 321

  University Teaching Fellow

  Master of Arts (M.A.)

  Forensic Psychology

  Carleton University

• 2006

  Bachelor of Arts (BA)

  Criminology and Criminal Justice

  Carleton University

• 3

  The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of eyewitness age and familiarity with the defendant

  and the potential interaction between these variables

  on mock jurors' perceptions and decisions. Mock jurors were presented with a mock murder trial transcript that included a positive identification by the victim's daughter who was 4

  or 20 years old and saw the defendant 0

  or 6 times prior to the crime. It was hypothesized that when a witness was familiar with the defendant

  their testimony would be perceived to be more credible and would sway verdict decisions even in the case of a very young eyewitness. Mock jurors were significantly more likely to rate the 20-year-old eyewitness as more credible overall and

  specifically

  in her description of the crime than the 4-year-old eyewitness; however

  age of the eyewitness did not significantly influence mock jurors' verdict decisions. Witness familiarity with the defendant did not significantly influence mock jurors' perceptions or verdicts and an interaction between eyewitness age and familiarity was not found. The implications of these findings will be discussed.

  Eyewitness age and familiarity with the defendant: Influential factors in mock jurors' assessment of guilt

  Judicial Discussion of Eyewitness Identification Evidence

  To safeguard against unreliable eyewitness evidence in court

  judges must be aware of recommendations\nput forth by empirical researchers and legal inquiries (such as the Sophonow Inquiry; Cory

  2001).\nHowever

  we do not know how judges weigh and assess the reliability of eyewitness identification\nevidence in their decisions. 247 full-text reports of Canadian judicial trial and appeal decisions from 1980\nto 2016 involving a discussion of eyewitness identification evidence were coded for key system (e.g.

  \nlineup administration) and estimator variables (e.g.

  experiencing trauma) known to impact eyewitness\nreliability. Judicial discussion of these variables was infrequent; however

  judicial decision was sensitive\nto information available about how a lineup was administered as well as whether the eyewitness was\nperceived to have experienced trauma during the crime. Lack of consideration of other key variables\nduring decision-making may indicate a potential lack of subject-area knowledge as well as possible\njudicial use of heuristics that minimise the concern about eyewitness evidence reliability in the case at\nhand.

  Judicial Discussion of Eyewitness Identification Evidence

  Ryan J. Fitzgerald

  Visually salient line-up rejection options have not been systematically studied with adult eyewitnesses. We explored the impact of using a non-verbal

  salient rejection option on adults' identification accuracy for line-ups containing low- or high-similarity fillers. The non-verbal

  salient rejection option had minimal impact on accuracy in low-similarity line-ups

  but in high-similarity line-ups its inclusion increased correct rejections for target-absent line-ups as well as incorrect rejections in target-present line-ups

  relative to a verbal rejection condition. The improved performance in target-absent line-ups suggests that adults

  like children

  may experience pressure to choose and guess during difficult tasks. This pressure is reduced when a prominent non-verbal rejection option is displayed in the line-up. However

  the salient rejection option also appears to increase the attractiveness of avoiding a difficult choice between the target and highly similar fillers. Implications of these findings for the experimental literature and justice system are discussed.

  Lineup member similarity influences the effectiveness of a salient rejection option for eyewitnesses.

  Leora Dahl

  Laypersons were asked to assume the role of investigators to explore judgments of what evidence is needed to make an arrest in a criminal investigation when an alibi witness is present. Participants were sensitive to the relationship between the alibi witness and the suspect and were more likely to believe an alibi provided by someone unrelated to the suspect

  as evidenced by requests for more physical evidence against the suspect than when the alibi corroborator was a family member. In addition

  when presented with contradictory evidence

  the age of the alibi witness became an important consideration. Age alone did not impact perceptions of evidence adequacy; however

  when an (adult) eyewitness provided testimony that contradicted a child alibi witness

  participants demonstrated partiality towards believing the child as evidenced by (a) more requests for physical evidence to be convinced the child was wrong and to arrest the suspect and (b) higher ratings of alibi witness credibility. This effect was not seen when the eyewitness’s testimony contradicted an alibi provided by an adult. The results provide insight for investigators and legal counsel regarding the influence of varying types of alibi witness evidence.

  When an alibi is not enough: An exploration of evidence needed for mock investigators to lay charges in a robbery case

  The purpose of this research was to determine if child eyewitnesses are seen as more or less credible compared with older eyewitnesses and to determine whether the number of descriptive errors made while recalling the appearance of a perpetrator has an influence on perceived credibility of the witness. Mock jurors were given a mock trial that presented a positive identification by an eyewitness where age of the eyewitness (4-

  12-

  20-year-old) and the number of perpetrator descriptor errors (i.e.

  6) made by the eyewitness were manipulated. Perceived levels of credibility

  accuracy

  and determinations of guilt were compared using a self-report questionnaire. Results support the hypothesis that mock jurors perceive eyewitnesses who make fewer errors in descriptions with more integrity (i.e.

  more credible

  reliable

  and accurate) and perceive the evidence presented by them (i.e.

  description of perpetrator and description of events) as more reliable. Overall

  adult eyewitnesses are perceived with more integrity\nthan child eyewitnesses.

  Influence of eyewitness age and recall error on mock juror decision-making

  Kaila

  Bruer

  Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

  University of Toronto

• 000

  Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canadian Graduate Scholarship

  Doctoral Scholarships: $105

  Social Science and Humanities Research Council

• Research

  Research Design

  Report Writing

  Forensic Psychology

  forensic psychology

  Quantitative Research

  Government Reports

  Criminology

  research

  University Teaching

  Public Speaking

  clinical research

  marketing research

  Clinical Research

  academic writing

  policy

  government reports

  Policy

  policy research

  Academic Writing

  The “magical” effect of integration on autobiographical memory.

  Tom Phenix

  Only a handful of studies have extended our understanding of retrieval induced forgetting (RIF) during development and even fewer have tested for RIF effects outside word-list paradigms. The purpose of these experiments was to: (i) examine how partial retrieval of a witnessed event would impact subsequent retrieval of that event in school-aged children; and (ii) examine the robustness of semantic integration as a boundary condition on RIF. Two experiments were conducted using the three traditional phases of the RIF paradigm: study phase

  practice phase

  and test phase. We found clear evidence of RIF in event memory. There was also evidence of the robust impact that integration instructions have on minimizing RIF. Integration appears to not only have a dampening effect on RIF

  but integration instructions may also influence how children process all aspects of an experience

  regardless of whether a person is passively or actively part of the experience.

  The “magical” effect of integration on autobiographical memory.

  Child eyewitnesses make more mistakes than adults when identifying criminals. A new police lineup design could help us assess their reliability and prevent wrongful convictions.

  Helping child witnesses: A new design for police lineups

  \nLaypersons were asked to assume the role of investigators to explore judgments of what evidence is needed to make an arrest in a criminal investigation when an alibi witness is present. Participants were sensitive to the relationship between the alibi witness and the suspect and were more likely to believe an alibi provided by someone unrelated to the suspect

  as evidenced by requests for more physical evidence against the suspect than when the alibi corroborator was a family member. In addition

  when presented with contradictory evidence

  the age of the alibi witness became an important consideration. Age alone did not impact perceptions of evidence adequacy; however

  when an (adult) eyewitness provided testimony that contradicted a child alibi witness

  participants demonstrated partiality towards believing the child as evidenced by (a) more requests for physical evidence to be convinced the child was wrong and to arrest the suspect and (b) higher ratings of alibi witness credibility. This effect was not seen when the eyewitness’s testimony contradicted an alibi provided by an adult. The results provide insight for investigators and legal counsel regarding the influence of varying types of alibi witness evidence.

  When an alibi is not enough: An exploration of evidence needed for mock investigators to lay charges in a robbery case

  The purpose of this study was to assess young children’s lineup identification performance comparative to adults and to determine whether developmental variability exists in reaction time when making correct and incorrect identification decisions across target-present and target-absent lineups. Adults (M_age = 20.00) and young children (M_age= 4.69) were exposed to an unfamiliar target and the time taken for them to make a lineup decision was automatically recorded by touching the picture on a computer screen. Children were found to have fewer hits (i.e.

  correct identifications and rejections) and more false alarms than adults in both lineup types. In addition

  results support the hypothesis that a faster decision was related to improved accuracy for adults

  while a slower decision may be suggestive of reduced accuracy for children. The developmental variability may suggest that developmental cognitive factors may influence lineup behaviour.

  Does Speed Indicate Lineup Identification Accuracy? Examining Children's and Adults' Reaction Time.

  To date

  very little research has examined developmental reversals in false memory outside of the word list paradigm. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether knowledge of

  and familiarity with types of environments influenced the quantity

  accuracy

  and errors recalled by children (4- to 6- year-olds) and adults. Using images and open recall questions

  the findings of the present study support the predicted reversal in false memories (i.e.

  developmental variability)

  supporting a cross-over effect of age and false memories. Children performed better than adults through providing less relevant errors (i.e.

  commission or semantic-based errors) about environments that were more familiar to adults. These findings support the predicted developmental reversal in false memories. The findings are discussed within the context of fuzzy trace theory and semantic knowledge structures. Implications for the applied eyewitness context are examined.

  Familiarity and Recall Memory for Environments: A comparison of Children and Adults

  In two experiments and one follow-up analysis

  we examined the impact of using a repeated forced-choice (RFC) line-up procedure with child and adult eyewitnesses. The RFC procedure divides the identification task into a series of exhaustive binary comparisons that produces not only traditional line-up information (identification decision and confidence) but also information about witness' selection behavior. Experiment 1 revealed that younger children (6- to 8-year-olds) struggled with the RFC procedure

  while older children (9- to 11-year-olds) performed as well with the RFC procedure as with a simultaneous procedure (with wildcard). Experiment 2 replicated this comparable performance with adults. Witnesses' suspect selection behavior during the RFC was predictive of identification accuracy for older children and adults. A model examined the additional information provided by the RFC in experiments 1 and 2 and provided evidence that witnesses' patterns of responding can be used to estimate suspect selection bias (a proxy for suspect recognition strength) associated with individual line-up decisions.

  A repeated forced-choice lineup procedure provides suspect bias information with no cost to accuracy for older children and adults.

  We tested whether an alternative lineup procedure designed to minimize problematic influences (e.g.

  metacognitive development) on decision criteria could be effectively used by children and improve child eyewitness identification performance relative to a standard identification task. Five hundred sixteen children (6- to 13-year-olds) watched a video of a target reading word lists and

  the next day

  made confidence ratings for each lineup member or standard categorical decisions for 8 lineup members presented sequentially. Two algorithms were applied to classify confidence ratings into categorical decisions and facilitate comparisons across conditions. The classification algorithms produced accuracy rates for the confidence rating procedure that were comparable to the categorical procedure. These findings demonstrate that children can use a ratings-based procedure to discriminate between previously seen and unseen faces. In turn

  this invites more nuanced and empirical consideration of ratings-based identification evidence as a probabilistic index of guilt that may attenuate problematic social influences on child witnesses’ decision criteria.

  How sure are you that this is the man you saw? Using confidence judgments to identify a target with child eyewitnesses.

  Julie Dempsey

  Joanna D. Pozzulo

  Young children (4- to 7-years old; N = 59) and adults (N = 53) were shown a series of targets that were either familiar (i.e.

  popular cartoon characters) or unfamiliar (unknown human faces) to assess whether children’s false positive responding with target-absent lineups is driven by social factors to a greater degree than cognitive factors. Although children were able to produce correct identification rates with virtually 100% accuracy for the cartoon characters

  they produced a significantly lower correct rejection rate compared to adults. Children also produced a significantly lower correct rejection rate for the human faces compared to adults. These data are discussed for understanding children’s identification evidence.

  The Culprit in Target-Absent Lineups: Understanding Young Children’s False Positive Responding

  Saria Javaid

  Shannon Parsons

  Jennifer Pettalia