Holly received her master’s in developmental psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2021. Her master’s research focused on the use of mental-state talk in parent-child reminiscing and storytelling and its association to children’s source-monitoring skills and mental-state understanding. She completed her honour’s degree in child and youth studies at Brock University where she examined parenting, perfectionism, and child well-being. Holly is very interested in early childhood development and parental influence. At Laurier, Holly was a TA for undergraduate statistics, a peer support volunteer, and a co-supervisor for a fourth-year student. She has a passion for working with children and families and aspires to apply her learnings into educational, legal, or clinical settings.
Kathy received her PhD in the Developmental Psychology program at Laurier. She received her Bachelor of Mathematics degree from the University of Waterloo and Master of Science degree in Psychology from National Taiwan University. Under Dr. Yee-San Teoh’s supervision, Kathy’s Master’s thesis examined the effects of anatomical doll on Taiwanese children’s recall of a repeated event. She enjoys working with children of all ages and is thrilled to have joined Dr. Kim Roberts to further her research in children’s memory.
Vivian completed her doctoral program in Developmental Psychology at Laurier (2015-2019). She is now a Ph.D. student in Clinical Psychology at UBC (2019 - current). Her broad research interest lies in the influences of socio-cultural background on children's cognition, interpersonal relationships, and psychological wellbeing. Under the supervision of Dr. Roberts, Vivian conducted various cross-cultural studies with a focus on the influences of macrosystem (i.e., social and cultural values) on children and adolescents' autobiographic memory. Through these research experiences, Vivian developed a strong interest in looking at the impacts of microsystem (i.e., the immediate environment, such as school and family) on children. That is why she decided to pursue more training in clinical psychology. Her recent project investigated the bidirectional associations between cross-racial friendships and children's social and academic adjustment. She hopes that her future research could help understand improve minority and immigrant children's social and academic adjustment.
Hannah graduated from The School of Law at Queen Mary University of London in 2021. Prior to studying law, she completed an undergraduate degree in Kinesiology, with a minor in Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University. In both 2015 and 2017, Hannah was a recipient of the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA). Receiving these awards enabled her to assist with various mental context reinstatement (MCR) and repeated-event memory studies under the supervision of Dr Roberts. Hannah attributes much of her interest in Law to Dr. Roberts, her research, and its relevance to criminal investigations in Canada. Hannah is thrilled to have found her passion in the legal profession and is currently working in compliance at a corporate law firm in Toronto.
Lerna completed her Master’s in Developmental Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University under the supervision of Dr. Kim Roberts. She has broad interests within the field of developmental psychopathology, including the development of internalizing (e.g., anxiety) and externalizing (e.g., aggression) problems in children and adolescents, as well as prevention/intervention programs to treat such problems. Her thesis research examined the effects of a school-based mindfulness program on children’s mental, physical, and emotional states, as well as children's ability to recall events during forensic investigations. Prior to her Master's, she completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology with Honours from York University, where her thesis examined the effect of mindfulness on adolescents’ levels of self-esteem. Currently, Lerna is a Ph.D. student in Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Windsor. She completed another Master's thesis that focused on the bidirectional relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and aggression in young children. She aims to translate what she learns from her research into practice to assist youth and their families with complex needs.
Becky completed her PhD in the Fall of 2016. She completed her undergraduate degree at Western University in the Honours Psychology program. Becky's undergraduate thesis looked at children's memory for the frequency of details in a series of repeated events, and she was excited to come to Laurier to continue studying children's memory with Dr. Kim Roberts. Becky's Masters thesis examined young children's source monitoring abilities, and specifically whether asking about sources serially versus parallel influences their ability to tag information with the source where they learned it. Her other research interests include children's spatial and temporal memory, source monitoring training techniques, and children's "don't know" responses during forensic interviews. Becky is currently collaborating with Dr. David La Rooy at the University of Abertay in Scotland.
Representative Research
McKenzie completed her Masters in the Fall of 2016. McKenzie’s Masters Thesis investigated children’s memory for repeated events and in particular, how the scripts we form in our minds (e.g., we have a script for grocery shopping-grab a cart, get vegetables, then frozen foods, and then pay) influence our memory. McKenzie examined if asking about a ‘different’ time’ that deviates from our usual script (e.g., one time you forgot your wallet at the grocery store) helps improve memory accuracy compared to just asking children about ‘usual’ times (any given time grocery shopping). These results will be beneficial for how investigative interviewers can ask effective questions to help children testify accurately in court and therefore be credible witnesses. Since graduating from WLU and the child memory lab, McKenzie went on to complete her PhD at Western in their School and Applied Child psychology program. She graduated in 2020 and completed all her licensing examinations and is currently registered with the college of psychologists of Ontario. She is currently practicing as a school and clinical psychologist, working with children and adolescents. She provides treatment for anxiety disorders, depression, OCD, ADHD, and Tourette Syndrome. She also provides psycho-educational and ADHD assessments. She has recently started an instagram page called @childpsychology.clinic where she shares free information, tips, and strategies for parents of children and teens!
Dr. Sonja Brubacher completed her PhD in the Child Memory Lab in 2011. Here, she devised and conducted studies that informed best practices for interviewing children about repeated events. In 2012, Dr. Brubacher was awarded a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, which she completed at Central Michigan University, USA. From there, she became a Research Fellow and lecturer at Deakin University’s Centre for Investigative Interviewing, in Melbourne, Australia. In January 2018, Dr. Brubacher, along with the Centre, relocated to the Griffith Criminology Institute, in Queensland, Australia. Dr. Brubacher remains in Queensland, today. Some of her research foci include children’s memory for repeated events, developing and testing interview practices that allow children to accurately and easily report their experiences, interviewer training, and interview preparatory phases (i.e. ground rules and narrative practice). Dr Brubacher has also been honoured with a Rising Star award from the Association for Psychological Science.
Representative Research
Dr. Angela Evans completed her M.A. in Social and Developmental Psychology under the super vision of Dr. Roberts at Wilfrid Laurier University. From there, she completed her PhD in Human Development and Applied Psychology at the University of Toronto. After completing her PhD, Dr. Evans held a SSHRC-funded Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Gould School of Law, University of Southern California. Currently, Dr. Evans is a Professor at Brock University in the Psychology Department. She holds the Chancellor’s Chair for Research Excellence and was recently received the Distinguished Researcher and Creative Activity Award. Her research, generally, examines social and cognitive development across the lifespan. Specifically, Dr. Evans examines how to obtain the most honest and accurate reports from child witnesses as well as how honesty develops and changes from childhood to older adulthood.
Representative Research
Una completed her Master's degree in the Child Memory Lab, in the subject of children's memories for repeated events. Una is currently employed as the Manager, Research Compliance and Strategic Initiatives within the Office of Research Services at Wilfrid Laurier University. In her role, she oversees the research ethics compliance and research information systems portfolios, in addition to leading a variety of strategic research initiatives.
Representative Research
Representative Research
Kayleen became a member of the Child Memory Lab in 2011, where she worked as a Research Assistant for two years. After completing her undergraduate thesis with Dr. Tobias Krettenauer, Kayleen graduated with her Honours
BA: Psychology Research Specialist degree in 2013. Afterwards, Kayleen
completed her Master's thesis with Dr. Kim Roberts and recently
finished the requirements for her Master's degree in Developmental
Psychology. Kayleen's Master's thesis investigated the ways in which
children think about their abuse in the context of investigative
interviews with social workers and police officers. Currently, she is
employed as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist for a private company in
Burlington.
Leanne recently completed her Masters in Developmental Psychology. She completed her undergraduate degree in the Honours Psychology program at the University of Guelph under the supervision of Dr. Meaghan McMurtry, and her honours thesis looked at the measurement of Children’s fear (both alone and in the context of pain) in clinical populations. Her MA thesis examined developmental differences in the use of cues and Children’s source monitoring performance.