Research

What happens when people discover evidence of experiences that they do not remember? What happens when they are led to doubt whether the events they remember really happened? How do people resolve that doubt, and how does this process affect their memories?

My research explores how people respond to suggestion, the strategies people use for verifying memories, and the motivations that determine which strategies they use. I also study the circumstances in which people cease believing that a memory is accurate.

In many contexts in everyday life - from education, to business, to sport - people receive descriptive feedback from others. For this feedback to be at all useful, people must attend to it and be able to remember it at a later time.

My research explores the cognitive and social processes that determine whether or not learners engage with feedback. I attempt to identify and understand the systematic biases that make certain kinds of feedback 'stick' in memory more readily and accurately than other kinds.

In numerous real-world contexts, it is important for people to be able to recall information as fully and accurately as possible. In legal contexts, for example, recent years have seen greater understanding of how to improve the quality and quantity of information gathered from eyewitnesses.

My research explores psychological techniques that help people to remember and report more information.