Emma Portch

Following my undegraduate degree in Psychology (Royal Holloway) I completed an MSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. I then moved to Leeds, where I completed a one-year research post, assessing the relationship between cognitive interviewing techniques, verbal overshadowing, and computerised facial composite construction. I stayed in Leeds to complete my PhD. My thesis explored the influence of (language-anchored) conceptual knowledge on the interpretation of facial expressions of emotion. In 2016 I then joined the University of Manchester as a member of research staff and worked on a two-year project to assess whether the novel application of motion parameters improve the recognisability of facial composites. I started my lectureship at Bournemouth University in January 2018.

My research interests centre around the forensic applications of face recognition. Much of my work explores how psychological factors impact upon the construction and subsequent recognition of computerised facial composites, or EvoFITs (frequently produced during police investigations). I am currently involved in projects that investigate the impact of cognitive interviewing mnemonics, facial visualisation techniques, facial animation, and individual target-face characteristics (attractiveness and disguise). Since joining Bournemouth University I have also been involved in work that seeks to address the potential use of super recognisers for forensically-relevant face recognition. In order to address this question it is important to first understand the potential limitations, and multi-faceted nature. of these individual's abilities.

If you would like to learn more about our lab's current research, or register to take part in our face recognition tasks, then please visit our website: https://prosopagnosiaresearch.org/about/super-recognition