Dr Amina Memon
Professor in Psychology, Royal Holloway University
Internationally known for her work on eyewitness testimony and investigative interviewing, Amina Memon is a scholar with 30+ years of research experience with an excellent track record. She has published over 150 peer reviewed articles and edited works and a text on Psychology and Law. In 2017 she received the ESRC impact prize which acknowledges the outstanding contribution her work has made to policy and practice. Her research in social and cognitive psychology contributes to best practice in forensic interviews of vulnerable witnesses. Her studies have included children, individuals with autism, seniors, police officers and judges.
Lab Members
Dr Sarah Jenkins
I am a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology. My broad research interests lie within the area of judgement and decision-making, across a range of applied domains. Within a forensic context, I am particularly interested in how the communication of uncertainty and confidence can affect perceptions of eyewitness testimony and subsequent decision-making.
Dr.Juliet Holdstock
I am a memory researcher currently working as a post-doctoral teaching associate in the Department of Psychology. I am interested in long-term memory for factual information and autobiographical events, including the brain systems underlying these aspects of memory, factors that affect our ability to learn and remember this information, and how memory changes with age. Within a forensic context, I am interested in understanding under what conditions eyewitness testimony and identification is most accurate, and how it is affected by aging.
Dr Zoe Given-Wilson
I am a clinical psychologist working with vulnerable children and young people who have experienced trauma in the National Health Service in England. I am also a post-doctoral researcher at Royal Holloway University of London. My research focuses on how development, trauma and memory intersect and affect testimony given in legal settings as well as how someone’s credibility may be judged. A lot of my work has been thinking specifically about the interaction of all these issues in asylum claims for international protection.
Dr.Sam Fairlamb
I am a teaching-focused academic in the Department of Psychology. My research interests concern existential issues (e.g., death, meaning, isolation) and how they may underpin an array of psychological phenomena including issues in a forensic domain such as extremist behaviours, and discrimination/biases in criminal/legal settings.
Gaia Giampietro
I am a PhD Student and Teaching Associate in the Department of Psychology. My research interests lie in eyewitness testimony and identification, as well as within the area of deception detection. My current research explores the impact of altered face distinctiveness on eyewitness performance during forensic lineups, striving to improve accuracy of eyewitness identification in real-world forensic contexts.
Student Members
Lucy Lin
I’m an undergraduate applied psychology student at Royal Holloway, University of London and I’m about to start my second year of study. I’m interested in many areas of psychology such as mental health, social psychology, and cognitive psychology…… I hope to work in those areas after University and continue to study in the field of psychology.
Eglune Kancleryte
I’m an undergraduate psychology student at Royal Holloway, University of London. I’m studying towards a career in clinical psychology and research. While I’m open to exploring various research topics during my studies, I’m particularly interested in psychopathology, memory in regard to trauma and personality disorders
Kiah Vekaria
Kiah Vekaria is in the final year of her BSc Criminology and Psychology degree. The focus of her research projects concern the cause and effect of criminal behaviour, and the role of mental health across the criminal justice system e.g., major crime detectives and the prison population. Having studied the rudiments of Sociology and Psychology at A-Level, her ambition is to pursue a career in forensic psychology, thus seeking to gain greater insight into the field.
Affiliated Members
Prof Catriona Havard
The Open University UK
Prof Havard studies face recognition and eyewitness identification from lineups and also the biases people make when trying to match or recognise faces. She has worked on projects investigating how children, adolescents and older adults make identifications, and looked at ways to improve their performance.
Dr Linda Henkel
Dr. Linda Henkel is a memory researcher known internationally for her theoretical work on source monitoring across the adult lifespan and for her applied research on memory in everyday settings (e.g., how taking and viewing photos shapes people’s memories; the impact of reminiscence on mental health and cognition in older adult nursing home residents) and in forensic settings (eyewitness accuracy and memory distrust; false confessions).
Dr.Jeffrey DeMarco
Jeffrey DeMarco (PhD in Psychology and Criminology) is the Associate Director for the Centre of Abuse and Trauma Studies (CATS), Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University and the Assistant Director of Knowledge and Insight at Victim Support. He also teaches on the Criminal and Forensic UG and PGT modules at Royal Holloway. His research focuses on behavioural understandings of radicalisation and terrorism, online harms, youth crime, hate crime and hate speech, extremism, child sexual abuse and exploitation and the psychopathology of adolescent victims/offenders of cybercrime. His work has improved policing of online sexual abuse and partnership between local communities and military in conflict zones using social media, including Iraq and Afghanistan.