Psychology-Law Concentration

The psychology-law concentration includes a distinguished group of faculty with research interests in criminal confessions, deception detection, eyewitness identification, plea bargaining, expert opinion evidence, forensic psychology, forensic science, memory, legal decision-making, and police interviewing and interrogation.

The group comprises faculty members from cognitive psychology (Dr. Jason Chan, Dr. Christian Meissner, Dr. Tess Neal, Dr. Andrew Smith, Dr. Miko Wilford) and social psychology (Dr. Zlatan Krizan).

Applicants interested in working with faculty in the Psychology-Law concentration should apply to either the Ph.D. program in cognitive psychology or the Ph.D. program in social psychology. Please visit the graduate admissions page for information about applying to the psychology-law concentration in psychology.

Faculty

Post-doctorate scholar

Student awards

• 2021-2022: Stavish Graduate Award to Rachel O’Donnell
• 2021-2022: Stavish Graduate Fellowship to Nydia Ayala and Alex Goldstein
• 2020-2021: Stavish Graduate Awards to Nydia Ayala and Rachel O’Donnell

Recent alumni

• Nydia Ayala (2024, Ph.D.) – Assistant professor at Washington and Lee University
• Ryan Ditchfield (2021, Ph.D.) – Assistant professor at California State Fresno
• Rachel Dianiska (2020, Ph.D.) – Postdoctoral fellow at University of California Irvine
• Krista Manley (2019, Ph.D.) – User experience researcher at Procore
• Dominick Atkinson (2019, Ph.D.) – Postdoctoral fellow at University of Idaho