I am a PhD Student in the Department of Psychology at Lancaster University. 

Currently working on my 3 year PhD project, titled Cross Cultural Deception Detection.

This project focuses on understanding how current investigative techniques apply across cultures. Existing methods, designed to increase honest memory recall while detecting dishonest narratives, have been developed using mostly Western participants. However, people differ, depending on their cultural background, in ways that can influence their presentation at interviews. Cultural backgrounds can influence memory function, memory retrieval, understanding of time, narration of past events, amount of details offered, tolerance to 'lying', understanding of 'crime', interactions with authority figures, perceptions of the opposite sex, expression of emotion, self presentation, response to influence and interaction etiquette. Depending on the cultural background of the interviewer this can lead to incorrect judgements of a person's honesty. My research will inform existing investigative practice on being culturally sensitive when approaching participants from a different background to one's own. 

My general fields of interest are forensic psychology and developmental psychology. 

I am interested in developing new methods of lie detection. To this end, I am currently working on testing how well existing methods of lie detection generalise across cultures.

In my MSc research I have investigated how well the task of building a scale model could be used to detect lying in primary school aged children. My two undergraduate projects found similarities between online game and real world leadership strategies and that adverts aimed at children are stereotypically gender biased. I am always interested in bringing evidence to support the positive effects video games can have on children's development.

I have a MSc in Developmental Psychology, with Distinction, from Lancaster University (2014). My BSc is a Combined Honours Degree in Psychology and Childhood and Youth Studies, with First Class Honours, from Manchester Metropolitan University (2012).