Deakin Forensic Memory Lab
Where forensic psychology intersects with human memory research
How we advance investigative interviewing techniques
The Deakin Forensic Memory Lab, housed in Deakin’s School of Psychology, conducts research into human memory in the forensic psychology field. Our research explores issues such as how human memory works for experienced events, the impact of misleading information on eyewitness memory and best practice interviewing techniques for vulnerable groups such as children, adolescents, neurodiverse populations, and family violence witnesses. We are particularly passionate about translating these research findings to forensic practitioners. We commonly do this through leading workshops and training courses about investigative interviewing and conducting further research about the effectiveness of applying training and interviewing techniques in the field.
Make a positive impact
Study a research degree or PhD with Deakin’s Faculty of Health and take a closer look at human behaviours, personalities, mental states, the brain and its processes.
Our researchers
The Deakin Forensic Memory Lab brings together academic researchers, interview trainers and research students to explore memory-related issues in investigative interviews, and to embed evidence from research studies within interviewer training in the field.
Dr Meaghan Danby is a Senior Lecturer in Deakin’s School of Psychology. Her research specialises in interviewing techniques to appropriately support children’s memory during police interviews, as well as techniques to support vulnerable adult witnesses providing evidence in interviews. She is especially passionate about translating these findings to forensic interviewers in the field through designing evidence-based training programs.
Dr Stefanie Sharman is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Head of Teaching and Learning in the School of Psychology. Her research focuses on memory and memory errors. She is interested in interview techniques that support people to provide the most accurate and complete accounts of events they have experienced.
Jacquie Vroom – Jacquie is completing her PhD investigating pre-substantive rapport building strategies utilised during child forensic interviews.
Madeleine Armstrong – Madeleine is completing her PhD investigating how suggestibility in forensic interviewing can impact adult eyewitness testimony in relation to repeated events of domestic violence.
Rachel Watkins – Rachel is undertaking her PhD investigating the effects of repeated interviews on adult eyewitnesses recalling repeated domestic violence incidents. As a part of this work, she is exploring interview strategies to support memory recall in forensic interviews.
Atticus Gray – Atticus is completing his PhD examining the effects of perceived source credibility on witness' susceptibility to misinformation.
Jessica Klein – Jess is completed her PhD examining the effects of neurodiversity on witnesses' susceptibility to misinformation.
Sarah Davey – Sarah is completing her Master of Psychology (Research), investigating forensic interviewing techniques to improve accurate memory recall in neurodiverse child witnesses.
Della Zhang – Della is undertaking a PhD examining the effects of trauma-informed interviewing for adults.
Linh Tran – Linh is completing her PhD on earwitness memory for criminal conversations and examining people's susceptibility to false memory.
Featured projects
Our projects help to create evidence-based resources to improve memory performance and communication in forensic settings.
Adults’ memories for repeated events
This research project explores how adult memories are impacted by repeated events. We create strategies to improve memory, as well as consider the effects of misinformation and the timing of the events on adult memories.
Building rapport with children and teenagers
In this project we investigate techniques to build rapport with a young person prior to a forensic interview. We are currently recruiting students to investigate working with teenage populations.
Evaluating training programs
In this project, we are exploring the facets of forensic interviewer training that help lead to successful learning and practices. We are conducting a series of studies with our police partners to develop evidence-based training programs that lead to lasting interviewing skills for practitioner trainees.
Interview training
We offer personalised, face-to-face training to interviewers wanting to understand how to support witness memory retrieval, particularly vulnerable witnesses such as children. We deliver training to various police and government organisations across Australia and internationally across topics, including:
- child interviewing techniques
- memory
- children’s cognitive and language development
- suggestibility and misinformation during interviews
- open questioning.
Contact us
Our team is here to answer your questions and help you learn more about the Deakin Forensic Memory Lab.
