Professor Coral Dando, course leader of our new Forensic Psychology MSc, talks about the fascinating world of eyewitness memory and how psychology is transforming police interviews.
If you’ve ever watched a crime drama, you’ve likely seen intense scenes where a detective asks a witness to recall what they saw. But in real life, getting accurate information from witnesses isn’t as simple as it looks on TV. In the Psychology Unleashed podcast, Professor Coral Dando, a leading expert in forensic psychology at the University of Westminster, explores how insights into eyewitness memory transform police interview methods.
From Police Officer to Forensic Psychologist
Before becoming a professor, Coral spent almost a decade as a police officer in central London. She was surprised to find that witnesses often struggled to recall details of incidents, even when they had been directly involved. This sparked her interest in understanding why people forget crucial details and how interview techniques could be improved to help them remember more accurately.
The myth of perfect memory
Many people think our memory works like a video recorder, capturing everything we see and replaying it accurately later. Coral admits she once believed this too. However, through her research, she discovered that human memory is far more complex. Factors like stress, the wording of questions, and the pressure to provide answers can all impact what a witness remembers. This insight has driven her work in developing better interview methods that help witnesses feel comfortable and recall more information without making errors.
Building rapport: the key to better memories
One of Coral’s main findings is the importance of building rapport during interviews. When witnesses feel at ease, they can focus more mental energy on remembering the event rather than worrying about the social interaction with the interviewer. Coral’s mantra is simple: “A comfortable witness is a good witness.” By creating a relaxed environment, interviewers can help witnesses give clearer and more accurate accounts.
Innovative approaches
Coral’s ideas and research have led to some exciting new developments for collecting witness statements. One example is ‘Chat Charlie,’ a chatbot designed and evaluated alongside her PhD research student Charlotte Adam which gathers short initial accounts from witnesses. It’s a simple, text-based interactive conversation that helps quickly capture vital information in busy situations where police can’t interview everyone right away.
Another innovative technique is ‘Drawing to Remember.’ Instead of asking witnesses, to recall details verbally, they are encouraged to draw what reminds them of the event at the start of an interview. The focus isn’t on creating a detailed picture but rather on sparking memories in a different more effective way. This method has shown great promise for all types of witnesses, but especially when interviewing neurodivergent children with autism, as it helps them express their thoughts more comfortably.
Shaping the future of witness interviews
So, what’s next for forensic psychology? Coral dreams of a “questionless interview,” where witnesses can share their experiences without being influenced by specific questions or the social environment. This approach could reduce errors and help people feel more confident in their ability to remember accurately, but would undoubtedly reduce the amount of detail reported so is not practical. But, Coral’s research developing virtual reality avatar-to-avatar interviewing techniques may be one way of seemingly removing the human to improve recall and reduce errors. She envisions a bigger toolkit of flexible techniques that interviewers can use to adapt to different witnesses, making the criminal justice process fairer and more effective.
Curious to learn more? Check out the full episode of Psychology Unleashed to hear Professor Dando discuss how forensic psychology is reshaping the way we understand and use eyewitness memory.
About Westminster
As one of the most diverse universities in the UK, we are a global university with London energy, with more than 19,000 students from 169 countries. To find out more about our Forensic Psychology MSc course, visit our website.