Psychology and Law Research Lab

The Psychology and Law Lab
Back Row (left to right): Scott Freng, Scott Culhane, Andre Kehn, Sean McCrea
Front Row (left to right): Jennifer Gray, Narina Nunez, Stephannie Walker

Psychology and Law Faculty:

Scott Culhane, Social Psychology, Criminal Justice Department
Scott Freng, Social Psychology, Psychology Department
Sean McCrea, Social Psychology, Social Cognition
Narina Nunez, Developmental Psychology, Psychology Department

Current and Recent Research Activities

The effect of victim impact statements on jury decisions
Performance of serial killers on standardized psychological measures
The impact of Alzheimer's severity on perceptions of elder abuse
Generation of alibis by innocent defendants
Discrimination of true and false alibis and evaluation of alibis in legal settings
Memory distortions in own and other race face processing
The impact of race and heinousness of the crime on death penalty decisions
The effect of psychiatric illness in the defendant on death penalty decisions
Social cognitive processes in juror decision making
Autobiographical Implicit Association Test and Eyewitness Memory

Recent Publications/Conferences

Tang, C.M., Nunez, N. & Bourgeois, M.J. (in press). The effects of trial venue and pre-trial bias on the evaluation of juvenile defendants. Criminal Justice Review.

Kehn, A. & Nunez, L. (2009). Demographic factors in sentencing, in Wiley Encyclopedia of Forensic Science, A. Jamieson & A. Moenssens (Eds.). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Culhane, S.E., Hosch, H.M. & Kehn, A. (2008). Alibi generation: Data from U.S. Hispanics and U.S. Non-Hispanic Whites. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 6, 177-199.

Nunez, N., Dahl, M.J. & Tang, C. M. & Jensen, B.L. (2007) Trial Venue Decisions in Juvenile Cases: Mitigating and Extralegal Factors Count. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 12, 21-39.

Culhane, S. E., & Hosch, H. M. (2005). Law enforcement officers serving as jurors: Guilty because charged? Psychology, Crime and Law, 11, 305-313.

Papers in progress/under review

Culhane, S. E. & Hosch, H. M. Changing your alibi: Current law enforcement, future law enforcement, and layperson beliefs and behaviors.

Hosch, H. M., Culhane, S. E., Jolly, K. W., Chavez, R. M., & Hawley, L. R. Effects of an alibi witness' relationship to the defendant on mock jurors' judgments.

Kehn, A., Renken, M. D., Gray, J. M., & Nunez, N. Developmental trends in the process of constructing facial composites for own-and other-race faces.

Graduate Students:

Jennifer Gray

Andre Kehn

Stephannie Walker

Grant activity:

Victim Impact Statements in Capital Trials: Examining the Differential Effects of Anger and Sadness on Juror Sentencing Decisions, National Science Foundation

Enhancing juror and jury reasoning, National Science Foundation
An examination of variations in juror reasoning and pre-deliberation verdicts and its impact on jury processes and decision-making, National Science Foundation

Ph.D.'s from our lab. They are gone but not forgotten.

Monica McCoy (Ph.D. 1997) Developmental Psychology, Dissertation "Jurors' reasoning skills and verdict decisions: The effect of jury deliberations." Currently an Associate Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at Converse College.
Matt Dammeyer, (Ph.D. 1999) Clinical Psychology, Dissertation- "Self-reported levels of anxiety and depression among law students." Currently the Director of Behavioral Health at Central Peninsula General Hospital, Alaska
Walt Peters, (Ph.D. 2000) Developmental Psychology, Dissertation- "Adult perceptions of child witnesses." Currently a Research Associate at Neilson in Australia.
Kami London (Ph.D. 2001) Developmental Psychology, Dissertation "Investigative courtroom interviews of children: Examining the efficacy of Truth/Lie Discussions in increasing the veracity of children's reports." Currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Toledo.
Mindy Dahl (Ph.D. 2005) Developmental Psychology Dissertation- "Adolescent decisions in situations of uncertainty: The impact of risky choice framing and decision making competency." Currently a Senior Research Scientist/Epidemiologist, Wyoming Department of Health
Connie Tang (Ph.D. 2005) Developmental Psychology- Dissertation "Young Children's Awareness of When New Learning Occurred." Currently an Assistant Professor at Stockton College.
Dana Binder (Ph.D. 2006) Social Psychology- Dissertation "The relationship between Need for Cognition, argument strength, and the persuasiveness of courtroom technology." Currently a Trial Consultant at Dispute Dynamics, Inc.
Christine Shea Adams (Ph.D. 2007) Social Psychology- Dissertation "The Death Penalty Attitudes Scale: Can capital trial jurors be chosen more fairly?" Currently a Statistical Analyst at The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.
Jessica Hatz (Ph.D. 2007) Social Psychology - Dissertation "Do deceptive hehaviors and lie detection abilities vary as a function of the method use for eliciting lies." Currently a visiting Assistant Professor at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Every year the Psychology Department has a bowling tournament that we call Bowlorama. Research labs compete for the coveted bowling trophy. We are proud to say we have won the trophy more times than any other lab. This year was no exception. We smoked the competition and kept the traveling trophy in our lab.


2007 Winning Team	2006 Winning Team

The Winners!!!!2003 Team	2004 Team