Psychology

Profile

Background 

I graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology in 2004 and an MSc in Forensic Psychology in 2005. I started my PhD studies (part time) in February 2008 under the supervision of Dr Julie Cherryman, Dr Lorraine Hope and Professor Aldert Vrij. My research focus is on improving eyewitness identification procedures for vulnerable witnesses.

Research interests

I am interested in the decision making processes used by both children and adults with intellectual disabilities when faced with an eyewitness identification task. Vulnerable witnesses show accuracy rates comparable to that of other adults for correctly identifying the target person when they are present the line-up; but they are significantly less likely to correctly reject the line-up by saying that the person is not present in target-absent line-ups. The aim of my research is to investigate the factors that influence the accuracy of these vulnerable groups and provide a clearer picture of the conditions and the context within which vulnerable witnesses are able to use their abilities to their highest potential.

Project title

Eyewitness identification in vulnerable witnesses: Investigating causes of poor performance and developing remedial strategies.

Teaching

I have worked as a part time teacher / demonstrator at the University of Portsmouth for Stage 2 Biopsychology Practicals, Stage 1 Practicals, Stage 2 Advanced Cognitive Functions Practicals and at the University of Kent for Stage 2 Integrated Psychology Statistics and Practicals and Stage 3 Psychology of Criminal Justice.

Presentations

Dunlevy, J. R., & Cherryman, J. (2009). Eyewitness identification in children: Investigating causes of poor performance in target absent line-ups. Presentation given at the 19th Annual Conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, 2 – 5 September, Sorrento, Italy.

Dunlevy, J. R., Cherryman, J., Hope, L., & Vrij, A. (2009). Children and line-ups: Investigating causes of poor performance and developing remedial strategies. Poster presented at the University of Portsmouth, UK, July.