Dr. Gary Wells

Distinguished Professor

Contact

Dept:Psychology
Email:glwells@iastate.edu
Office:476 Science
2237 Osborn Dr.
Ames IA
50011-1027
Phone:515-294-6033
Website:https://wells.socialpsychology.org/

Topics of interest: Applied social psychology, Judgment and decision making, Law and public policy

Laboratory: Psychology and Law Lab

Bio

Publications and External Links:

Education:

Ph.D., Experimental Social Psychology
Ohio State University, 1977

B.S., Psychology
Kansas State University, 1973

Research Interests:

Most of my work has been focused on the reliability of eyewitness identification. My recent work in this area includes investigations into ways in which the structure of lineups affect the reliability of eyewitness identifications and also factors that lead eyewitnesses to develop false confidence in their memories. In addition, we have launched a new line of research looking at how extraneous information can bias the conclusions that forensic examiners (e.g., fingerprint examiners) reach. Specifically, we are testing the effectiveness of a method that can neutralize this type of bias.

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