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Dr Alex Bright-Paul

Lecturer

telephone: +44 (0)117 95 46845 email: A.M.Bright-Paul@bris.ac.uk

Room 3D1

Research interests

Children’s memory, eyewitness testimony, post-event misinformation effect, suggestibility, source-monitoring, theory of mind, applications of temporal-distinctiveness models of memory, social contamination of memory and the co-witness influence effect.

Broadly speaking I am interested in memory and development, and in particular children’s eyewitness testimony. My research has focused primarily on understanding the circumstances that make children prone to incorporating misleading information into reports of witnessed events (commonly known as the postevent misinformation effect or “suggestibility”). I have approached this topic from several perspectives.

1. I am especially interested in the developmental mechanisms that underpin variations in suggestibility. Hence, some of my research has explored whether improvements in theory of mind and the ability to identify the source of memories contribute to the marked improvements in resistance to suggestion typically observed between three and six years.

2. I am also interested in the notion of “temporal distinctiveness”, and how the effects of temporal isolation of misinformation may be informative about the mechanisms underpinning the postevent misinformation effect (both in paradigms where the misinformation is presented once or repeatedly).

3. More recently, I have examined the “co-witness influence” effect, a phenomenon where reports of events may be influenced by social interaction with other witnesses who may have an alternative perspective or version of events. In particular, I have explored whether co-witness contamination of reports is driven by social conformity or on actual memory distortions, and have devised methods to separate these potential contributing factors.


Grants

Bright-Paul, A., Jarrold C. & Wright, D.B. “Children’s eyewitness testimony: social contamination of memory and theory of mind development” ESRC research award. £97K, 12 months funding from October 2007.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold C. “Differentiating temporal-distinctiveness and trace-strength accounts of children’s suggestibility”. ESRC research award. £95K, 12 months funding from July 2006.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold C. “A temporal distinctiveness model of children’s suggestibility”. ESRC research award. £41K, 12 months funding from April 2005.


Publications

Bright-Paul, A., Jarrold, C. & Wright, D.B. (2005). Age-appropriate cues facilitate source-monitoring and reduce suggestibility in 3 to 7-year-olds. Cognitive Development, 20, 1-18.

Bright-Paul, A., Jarrold, C. & Wright, D.B. (2008). Theory-of-mind development influences suggestibility and source monitoring. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1055-1068.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (in press). A temporal discriminability account of children’s eyewitness suggestibility. Developmental Science.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (under review). Children’s eyewitness memory: Repeating postevent misinformation reduces the distinctiveness of a witnessed event.

Presentations



Conference Presentations

Bright-Paul, A., Jarrold, C. & Wright, D.B. (2008). Children’s eyewitness testimony: social contamination of memory. Paper presented at The British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, Oxford Brookes University, September, 2008.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (2008). Children’s eyewitness suggestibility: A temporal discriminability approach. Paper presented at the South West Memory Group Conference, June 2008, University of Bristol.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (2007). The temporal distinctiveness of sources influences children’s suggestibility. Paper presented at a symposium on source-monitoring and timing at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Boston, April 2007.

Bright-Paul, A. (2007). Children’s suggestibility: Differentiating trace-strength and discriminability explanations. Poster presented at The British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, University of Plymouth, August 2007.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (2006). Rating confidence about the accuracy of source decisions in an eyewitness paradigm. Poster presented at The British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, Royal Holloway, University of London, September 2006.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (2006). A temporal distinctiveness account of suggestibility (2006). Paper presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, University College London, January 2006.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (2005). A temporal distinctiveness model of children’s suggestibility. Paper presented at The British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, Edinburgh University, September 2005.

Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (2004). Children’s eyewitness testimony: the temporal distinctiveness of misinformation moderates suggestibility. The British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, Leeds Metropolitan University, September 2004.

Wright, D.B., Bright-Paul, A. & Jarrold, C. (2002). Estimating theory of mind ability: Statistical and measurement considerations. Poster presented at The British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, University of Sussex, September 2002.

Bright-Paul, A. & Wright, D.B. (2001). Children’s eyewitness suggestibility: Theory of mind predicts source-monitoring performance. Poster presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting, Minneapolis, USA, April 2001.

Bright-Paul, A., Wright, D.B. & Jarrold, C. (2000). Children’s eyewitness testimony: Measuring recognition and source misattribution errors. Poster presented at The British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, University of Bristol, September 2000.

Bright-Paul, A. & Wright, D.B. (1999). Children’s eyewitness testimony: processes underlying differences in suggestibility. Poster presented at The British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, Nottingham University, September 1999.


Invited Presentations

Bright-Paul (2008). False memories and the suggestibility effect. Public Engagement Lecture at the University of Bristol, July, 2008.

Bright-Paul (2008). Children’s suggestibility and theory of mind development. Invited presentation, Department of Psychology, University of Bangor, May 2008.

Bright-Paul (2004). Children’s eyewitness testimony: the role of source-monitoring and theory of mind development. Invited presentation, Cognitive Development Research Group, Department of Psychology, University of Birmingham, November, 2004.

people | academic and research staff | support staff | PhD students