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 is a first year Ph.D. student in the Developmental Psychology Program at Laurier. She has a broad interest in forensic psychology. She graduated from Simon Fraser University with an Honours Degree in Psychology. In her Honours’ project, she examined the effects of expert testimony on jurors’ perceptions of guilt under the supervision of Dr. Deb Connolly. Vivian is interested in investigating cross-cultural differences in the specificity of children’s autobiographic memory. She hopes this kind of cross-culture study can shed light on whether Asian children are disadvantaged in a forensic investigative interview.
Hannah completed her Bachelor's degree in Kinesiology with a minor in Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. Hannah is a recipient of the NSERC URSA Award in both, 2015 and 2017 under the supervision of Dr. Roberts. She developed a passion for psychology research throughout her academic career and is truly excited to be a member of the Child Memory Lab throughout the 2017/2018 academic year. She has worked with children for the majority of her life and is thrilled to continue to further garner her abilities through this lab opportunity. In the future, Hannah aspires to continue her education in the field of legal studies.
Lerna completed her Master’s in Developmental Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. Lerna completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology with Honours from York University. Under the supervision of Dr. Michaela Hynie, Lerna’s undergraduate thesis examined the effects of mindfulness in adolescents with learning disabilities. More specifically, her thesis looked at whether mindfulness offers any benefits for increasing adolescents’ levels of self-esteem. She will continue pursing mindfulness research with children through her master’s thesis under the supervision of Dr. Kim Roberts. She will analyze whether mindfulness programs implemented in schools will have any beneficial effects on children’s mental, physical, and emotional states and whether it can help children recall events during forensic investigations. Through her thesis, Lerna hopes that programs such as mindfulness can help children’s overall mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
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. She completed her undergraduate degree in the Honours Psychology program at the University of Guelph under the supervision of Dr. Mark Fenske. Her honours thesis examined cognitive processes such as selective attention and the impact that memory has on one's emotions. McKenzie’s Masters Thesis is investigating 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 is examining 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.
Dr. Brubacher completed her PhD in the fall of 2011. She conducted a set of studies for her dissertation related to best practices for interviewing children about events they have experienced on multiple occasions. Dr. Brubacher was a Laureate of the Canadian Psychological Association's Certificate of Academic Excellence for work on her BA Thesis, the recipient of several National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Undergraduate Research Assistantships, the Award for Teaching Excellence from the Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology, an NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (Master's), the Joseph Armand-Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (PhD), and recently held a Banting Postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Debra Poole at Central Michigan University. Dr. Brubacher is now a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.
Representative Research
Dr. Evans completed her MA in the lab, before going on to get her Ph.D. in Developmental Science/Developmental Psychology and Education, O.I.S.E. University of Toronto. She is now an Assistant Professor at Brock University. Her research focuses on the influence of children's social and cognitive development on their moral understanding and behaviour. Dr. Evans uses experimental methods to systematically study children's understanding of deception and their actual deceptive behaviours both in the laboratory and in the field. She also examines cultural factors that influence children's understanding and evaluation of lies in different contexts, as well as their actual lie-telling behaviours. Additionally, Dr. Evans is interested in issues related to child eyewitness testimony such as children's competency, credibility, and our ability to detect their lies.
Representative Research
Una completed her Master's
degree in the Child Memory Lab, in the subject of children's memories
for repeated events. Una then went on to work as Research Methods /
Statistics Lab Coordinator, and subsequently as Human Research Ethics
Coordinator in the Psychology Department, both at Wilfrid Laurier
University. Una is currently employed by Wilfrid Laurier University,
working as the Animal Care Committee / Strategic Planning Coordinator.
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.