About Us
Housed within the School of Psychology at Deakin University, Australia, the Forensic Memory Laboratory brings together academic researchers, interview trainers, and research students. Situated across Melbourne and Geelong campuses, our group are passionate about understanding memory-related issues within the fields of police interviewing, investigations, and the courtroom.
Research

A child colours in a drawing on a piece of paper
Our group conducts research into issues related to human memory in the forensic psychology field. Our chief focus is to examine interviewing techniques that support witness memory, but we also explore issues such as how human memory works for experienced events, the impact of misleading information on eyewitness memory, and best-practice interviewing for vulnerable groups such as children, family violence witnesses, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We are passionate about creating evidence-based resources to improve memory performance and communication in these areas.
Current projects include:
- Adults’ memories for repeated events: In this project we will be looking at the effects of factors such as misinformation, the timing of the events, and strategies to improve memory for one or more occurrences.
- Police training in child interviewing techniques: In this project we are investigating police officers’ abilities to evaluate child interviews and provide peer feedback.
- Interview supports for vulnerable children: In partnership with police organisations, we are examining how interview questions can best elicit memory reports from vulnerable children.
- Building rapport with children and teenagers. In this project, we are investigating techniques to build rapport prior to an forensic interview with a young person. We are currently recruiting students to investigate working with teenage populations in particular.
Please contact stefanie.sharman@deakin.edu.au or meaghan.danby@deakin.edu.au if you would like be to involved.
Interview Training
We offer personalised, face-to-face training to interviewers wanting to understand how to support witness memory retrieval, particularly vulnerable witnesses such as children. We develop and use contemporary resources that build capacity in communicating in interviews for our trainees. We have many years experience delivering training to various Police and Government organisations across Australia and internationally.
Please contact meaghan.danby@deakin.edu.au if you have training queries.