Department of Psychology

Forensic Developmental Psychology Lab

Development officeOur lab investigates children's developing social and cognitive skills and how this information can be applied in forensic settings. Our current projects investigate many different issues that revolve around improving children's reports:

Can dogs act as social support to promote children's disclosure of child maltreatment?What are the optimal ways to interview bilingual children? Why are children performing better using dolls over drawings to show bodily touch? What impact does mothers' questioning exert upon children's reports? How does race of the child impact jurors' perceptions of child witnesses? What kinds of interview procedures promote disclosure among adolescents (who have been neglected in the eyewitness testimony literature). What kinds of experiences do sex trafficking survivors report during interactions with law enforcement?

The goal of this research is to create and improve empirically-driven forensic procedures that deal with children in efforts to bolster the reliability of their courtroom testimony. I have testified as an expert witness throughout the United States and abroad. 

For more information about Dr. London's work, please click here. 

If you are an undergraduate student interested in working in the Forensic Developmental Lab, please email Christina Perez at Christina.Perez@rockets.utoledo.edu.

More about our developmental program:

The University of Toledo's Program for Developmental Studies was established in 1971. The Program is one of the five concentration areas within our Experimental Psychology Program. The study of development is the study of how and why humans grow and change throughout life- from birth until death.  Researchers explore such things as the orderly and relatively enduring changes over time in physical and neurological structures, perception, thought processes, emotional reactions, and social behavior.  Our current research focus is primarily cognitive in nature; specifically, we are interested in forensic developmental psychology. We are investigating questioning methods that produce the most accurate reports from children as well as those that distort children's memory.

The Developmental Psychology program uses a research focused training model. Doctoral students train under the close supervision of a mentor with shared research interests. We emphasize depth and breath of training so that students graduating with their doctoral degrees are prepared to be competitive in job markets including academia, business, and consulting.

Doctoral students complete a variety of advanced psychology courses. They also are active in research, attending scientific conferences, and writing manuscripts for publication.

Personnel

Faculty Investigator:

Kamala London Newton, Ph.D.

Graduate Students

Quincy Miller         Kristina Todorovic          Amy Capparelli               Christina Perez

 






Last Updated: 6/27/22