Amy Bradfield Douglass
Associate Professor
- 207-786-6182
- Pettengill Hall, Room 372
- adouglas@bates.edu
Summary of Interests
- Eyewitness testimony
- Distortions in eyewitness confidence
- Social influence in the context of legal decisions
- Jury decision making
Education
- Ph.D. in Social Psychology, Iowa State University, 2001
- Master of Science in Psychology, Iowa State University, 1998
- Bachelor of Arts, with honors, Williams College, 1996
Research Interests
Professor Douglass is a social psychologist with interests in the interface of psychology and law, specifically eyewitness testimony. In her research, she examines how eyewitness memory can be profoundly distorted by subtle interactions with other witnesses and investigators.
Courses Taught
- Psychology 218 Statistics and Experimental Design
- FYS 255 The Psychology of Influence
- Psychology 307 Applied Social Psychology
- Psychology 311 Psychology of Religion
- Psychology 317 Psychology and Law
Invited Submissions
* indicates Bates student
Douglass, A.B., & *Bustamante, L. (2012). Social influences on memory. To be published in Handbook of Applied Memory, edited by Tim Valentine and Don Read, Sage Press.
Douglass, A. B. (August 31, 2011). Changes to eyewitness identification procedures. NY Times Room for Debate blog.
Douglass, A. B., & *Pavletic, A. (2011). Eyewitness confidence malleability: Why it occurs and how it contributes to wrongful convictions. In B. L. Cutler (Ed). Conviction of the Innocent: Lessons from Psychological Research. APA Press.
Selected Publications
* indicates Bates student
Douglass, A. B., & Jones, E. (in press). Confidence inflation in eyewitnesses: Seeing is not believing. Legal and Criminological Psychology.
Quinlivan, D., Neuschatz, J., Douglass, A. B., Wells, G. L., & Wetmore, S. (2 April 2011). The effect of post-identification feedback, delay, and suspicion on accurate eyewitnesses. Law and Human Behavior, advance online publication. doi: 10.1007/s10979-011-9277-1
Douglass, A. B., Neuschatz, J. S., *Imrich, J. F., & Wilkinson, M. (2010). Does post-identification feedback affect evaluations of eyewitness testimony and identification procedures? Law and Human Behavior, 34(4), 282-294. doi: 10.1007/s10979-009-9189-5
Douglass, A. B., Brewer, N., & Semmler, C. (2010). Moderators of post-identification feedback effects on eyewitnesses’ memory reports. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 15, 279-292.
Quinlivan, D. S., Neuschatz, J. S., Jiminez, A., Cling, A. D., Douglass, A. B., & Goodsell, C. A. (2009). Do prophylactics prevent inflation?: Post-identification feedback and the effectiveness of procedures to protect against confidence-inflation in earwitnesses. Law and Human Behavior, 33, 111-121.
McQuiston-Surrett, D. M., Douglass, A. B., & Burkhardt, S. (2008). Evaluation of facial composite evidence depends on the presence of other case factors. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 13(2), 279-298.
*Poggio, A., & Douglass, A. B. (2007). The impact of task difficulty, defendant’s race and race salience on conformity in mock jury deliberations. Modern Psychological Studies: Journal of Undergraduate Research, 13(1), 3-15.
Douglass, A. B., *Smith, C., & Fraser-Thill, R. (2005). A problem with double-blind photospread procedures: Photospread administrators use the confidence of one eyewitness to influence the identification of another eyewitness. Law and Human Behavior, 29(5), 543-562.
Wells, G. L., & Bradfield, A. L. (1998). “Good, you identified the suspect”: Feedback to eyewitnesses distorts their reports of the witnessed experience. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 360-376.
Grant Funding
Douglass, A. B., Brewer, N., & Semmler, C. (August 1, 2009 – July 31, 2012). The dynamic interaction between investigator and eyewitness: Effects on memory reports and interviewer behavior. National Science Foundation, $128,926.
Semmler, C., Brewer, N., & Douglass, A. B. (December 2009 – December 2012). The distortion of eyewitness identification testimony. Australian Research Council, $230,000 (AUD).