Dr Melissa Colloff BSc, MSc, PhD

Dr Melissa Colloff

School of Psychology
Lecturer in Forensic Psychology

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 4925
Email
m.colloff@bham.ac.uk
Address
School of Psychology
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Melissa Colloff conducts research on applied memory and cognition. Melissa mainly uses research and statistical modelling techniques from basic psychology to investigate memory and decision-making in the legal system. Melissa is interested in both theoretical and applied aspects.

Qualifications

  • PhD Psychology, University of Warwick
  • MSc Forensic Psychology, University of Leicester
  • BSc Psychology, University of Bath

Biography

Dr Melissa Colloff conducted postgraduate research on the influence of alcohol intoxication on face recognition and completed a PhD examining how police lineup techniques for distinctive suspects influence eyewitness identification accuracy. During her education, Melissa worked on applied and theoretical research projects at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, The University of Leicester, UK and University of California, San Diego. Following her PhD, Melissa worked with Dr Heather on a funded project which examined whether a novel identification procedure can improve face recognition accuracy. Melissa has been a Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at Birmingham since 2018.

Teaching

Melissa teaches on the Forensic Psychology Practice Doctorate (ForenPsyD)

Postgraduate supervision

Melissa welcomes applications from first-rate graduate students wishing to pursue postgraduate research degrees on applied memory and cognition topics. Undergraduate students are also encouraged to contact Melissa directly if they are interested in contributing to research in the Applied Memory and Cognition Lab.

Research

Melissa’s research interests include:

  • Face recognition and police lineup procedures
  • Signal detection theory and recognition memory
  • Eyewitness memory and memory distortions
  • The effects of alcohol intoxication on memory

Research identifiers

ORC ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6401-4872

Publications

Colloff, M. F., Wade, K. A., Wixted, J. T., & Maylor, E. A. (2017). A signal-detection analysis of eyewitness identification across the adult lifespan. Psychology and Aging, 32, 243–258. doi:10.1037/pag0000168

Flowe, H. D., Colloff, M. F., Karoğlu, N., Zelek, K., Ryder, H., Humphries, J. E., & Takarangi, M. K. T. (2017). The effects of alcohol intoxication on accuracy and the confidence-accuracy relationship in photographic simultaneous lineups. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 31, 379–391.

Colloff, M. F., Wade, K. A., & Strange, D. (2016). Unfair lineups make witnesses more likely to confuse innocent and guilty suspects. Psychological Science, 27, 1227–1239. doi:10.1177/0956797616655789doi:10.1002/acp.3332

Colloff, M. F., & Flowe, H. D. (2016). The effects of acute alcohol intoxication on the cognitive mechanisms underlying false facial recognition. Psychopharmacology, 233, 2139–2149. doi:10.1007/s00213-016-4263-4

Flowe, H. D., Klatt, T., & Colloff, M. F. (2014). Selecting fillers on emotional appearance improves lineup identification accuracy. Law and Human Behavior, 38, 509–519. doi:10.1037/lhb0000101

Alogna, V. K., Attaya, M. K., Aucoin, P., Bahnik, S., Birch, S., Birt, A. R., et al. (2014). Registered Replication Report: Schooler & Engstler-Schooler (1990). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 9, 556–578. doi:10.1177/1745691614545653