Nikita Chandu

Thesis: Understanding Emotional Responses And Their Effects On Eyewitness Memory

This project aims to determine how distinct emotions, not limited to fear and anger, shape witnesses' attention and memory for crime, and to translate this into a standardised tool for assessing eyewitness reliability. As eyewitness testimony is a leading cause of wrongful convictions, much research has explored the interaction between the witnesses’ emotional state and their recall of the event. However, findings have been mixed. While some studies show negative emotion sharpens recall of central details while impairing memory for peripheral ones, others report a broader decline in accuracy under stress. Resolving this requires treating emotionality as a differentiated experience rather than a single arousal intensity, because distinct emotions shape attention differently, and no existing scale captures the specific emotional responses of eyewitnesses. The project asks: which emotional responses are most common among witnesses and most likely to affect memory; how these correlate with physiological indicators (e.g., heart rate, eye movements); how emotional intensity shapes attention to, and recollection of crime details; and whether a new measure of emotional response can reliably predict eyewitness memory performance. Three linked strands answer these questions. The first is a systematic review of the eyewitness emotion literature, establishing the evidence base for the studies that follow. The second strand uses experimental methods, including psychophysiological measures and eye-tracking, to identify how emotional states manifest physiologically and shape attention to central versus peripheral crime details. The third strand develops and validates a new instrument, the Eyewitness Emotional Response Scale, using factor analysis to test its predictive power. The resulting scale is intended to give a precise, reliable tool for further studies measuring and analysing eyewitnesses' emotional responses, with implications for investigations and legal proceedings.

Biography:

Nikita Chandu is a PhD researcher in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick, supervised by Professor Kimberley Wade and Professor Derrick Watson. Her research examines how witnesses’ emotional responses to crimes shape their memories, using behavioural and psychophysiological methods such as eye-tracking, heart rate and skin conductance. More broadly, she is interested in eyewitness memory, emotion and cognition in forensic and legal settings. She is also interested in how artificial intelligence and psychometric tools can be used to improve investigative procedures and decision-making in the justice system. Previously, Nikita worked as a IPS employment specialist in a drug and alcohol recovery charity in the UK and as a Forensic Scientific Officer in India, and as a Research Assistant with various researchers at the University of Portsmouth and Essex. She holds a BSc and an MSc in Forensic Science from Jain University and Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India; and an MSc in Psychology from the University of Essex.

Other research interests:

- Artificial intelligence in eyewitness identification and legal decision-making

- Misuse of generative AI and its psychological predictors

- Psychometrics and scale development

- Visual attention and eye-tracking

- Investigative interviewing and deception detection

- Stigma, hate and prejudice

- Mental health

Department of Psychology

University of Warwick

2026 Cohort

Supervisors:

Prof. Kimberley Wade

Prof. Derrick Watson