The public believes Criminal Justice Professionals (CJPs) have superior memory despite research showing no uniform advantage. We hypothesize people's belief that CJPs have better memory may be linked to trauma memory is special myth. In Study 1 we manipulate witness profession (Study 1) and find CJPs are perceived as more credible and less prone to memory distortion. Study 2 (still in progress) manipulates secondary trauma levels. We propose the public views job-related secondary trauma accumulation as protective, enhancing memory reliability for traumatic events. If participants believe CJPs’ memory is better because of job-related trauma, this could have implications for courtroom decisions.

Olivia Maurice's PhD research investigates the neurophysiological and cognitive mechanisms underlying possible advantages of multilingual experience for healthy brain ageing. Epidemiological research suggests that being multilingual is associated with delayed onset of neurodegenerative symptoms in multiple dementia pathologies, but cognitive and neuroscientific data offer inconclusive explanations for this benefit. This research study aimed to address these mixed findings by examining the impact of continuously-measured language experience on multiple cognitive tasks, including visuospatial and auditory working memory, inhibitory control and attention.

We aimed to determine how similar-looking fillers should be to the police suspect in a lineup to maximise eyewitness accuracy.

In an online experiment, participants viewed a mock-crime video and were later presented with a 9-person sequential video lineup which either contained the guilty suspect or an innocent suspect. The lineups contained fillers that were low-, medium-, or high-similarity to the suspect.

This study uses stimuli and procedures which follow UK lineup procedure. Our findings can be used alongside similar research to provide evidence-based guidance for lineup construction procedures in the UK.

Within the discussion, we will celebrate what the student research grant awardees have achieved; highlight synergies within the research; and promote future student activities and opportunities.