Research
Investigative/forensic psychology /eyewitness testimony
I have a range of interests in the general areas of investigative and forensic psychology, including witness suggestibility, false memories, eyewitness confidence and accuracy relationships, the effects of memory facilitation techniques on eyewitness testimony, and psychology in the courtroom. Through this work I have been able to inform legal authorities on ways of improving confidence-accuracy relationships. Most significantly, I pioneered one of the first cognitive interviewing procedures for use by the police, and I am continuing to refine this. On the basis of our research in this area, Dr Jacqueline Wheatcroft and I have produced new forensic interviewing technique entitled the Liverpool Interview Protocol (LIP). I have given workshops on this technique to a number of police forces, including the anti-terrorism team in Singapore, and it is presently being piloted by police forces in the UK and Canada. As a result of this work Dr Wheatcroft and I were invited to give a keynote address to the International Interviewing Research Group in Maastricht, Holland in 2013.
The social and cognitive psychology of hypnosis
For over 40 years I have also been attempting to link hypnotic phenomena with normal psychological processes drawn, in particular, from social and cognitive psychology. My work on hypnosis has a number of practical implications for the evaluation of hypnotic procedures in both forensic and clinical contexts, and relates directly to questions such as, is hypnosis useful as a forensic interviewing technique, are claims concerning hypnotic amnesia and hypernmesia valid, is stage hypnosis dangerous, and is uncoerced rape possible under hypnosis?
The psychology of justice
Since 1980 I have also been investigating the role of psychological processes in conceptions of social and criminal justice. This has led to the development of a theory entitled 'Equity as Desert' as described in my book on the subject 'An integrated psychological and philosophical approach to justice' (2001). Equity as Desert is an integration of the Pythagorean and Aristotelian mathematical principle of 'geometrical proportion', the principle of psychological equity, traditional religious and philosophical notions of desert, and the sociobiological foundations of justice. My work in this area has practical implications; most important are those that concern how best to devise and communicate social policy decisions so that they meet public concerns about justice.
Research groups
Research collaborations
Professor Tim Perfect
University of Plymouth
Investigating effects of memory facilitation including the use of eyeclosure
Dr Jacqueline Wheatcroft
Manchester Metropolitan University
Collaborating on the effects of group presence on task performance including eyewitness memory