Psychology: Fully-funded PhD Studentship: ‘Eyewitness Identification’: Understanding the Cognitive Processes that Drive Decision-Making

Key Information

The objective of this studentship is to improve the understanding of how eyewitnesses make decisions when faced with a police lineup. The studentship is funded through a scholarship based in the College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University. A highly motivated, ambitious and technically skilled individual is sought to undertake a three-year PhD project with Dr. Ruth Horry (Department of Psychology) on the eyewitness identification decisions.

Eyewitnesses to crimes are often asked to view lineups that include the police suspect and a number of known-to-be innocent fillers. Lineup evidence plays an important role in the criminal justice system, contributing to a large number of criminal convictions around the world each year. However, this form of evidence can be unreliable, as memory is fallible.

The project, which is based in the Department of Psychology, will involve conducting a number of experiments designed to critically test the predictions of different models of the eyewitness identification decision process. Participants’ decisions, response times and confidence ratings will be collected under different experimental conditions, and computational modelling techniques will be used to compare the predictions of opposing decision models. The successful applicant will join a vibrant, productive group of researchers and PhD students in the department. This is an excellent opportunity for an enthusiastic and self-motivated individual to make a substantial contribution to the applied cognitive literature on eyewitness identification decisions. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to undergraduate tutorials, practical demonstrating and assessment.

Eligibility

Candidates should have a first or upper second class degree and an MSc in a relevant discipline (e.g., psychology, neuroscience) and experience with specialist statistical and experiment-building software (e.g., SPSS, R, E-Prime, MatLab). Applicants with strong written and spoken communication skills are highly desirable.

Due to funding restrictions, this studentship is available to UK/EU candidates only.

Funding

The studentship covers the full cost of UK/EU tuition fees, plus a tax-free stipend of £14,057 p.a. for three years (subject to satisfactory progress).

Location: Swansea, UK

Applications close on Monday 10 August 2015.

Read more and apply here.