Welcome to the Applied Cognition Lab
Members of the Applied Cognition Lab (ACL) conduct research that takes findings from the experimental psychology literature involving perception, attention, memory, and decision-making, and applies them to real-world issues. In particular, we are interested in issues of eyewitness identification, involving such topics as how a crime and perpetrator are encoded by an eyewitness, how that information is remembered, and how it is used to identify the perpetrator from the eventual lineup (or how to use the information to correctly reject a lineup containing an innocent suspect instead of the perpetrator). Over 350 innocent individuals had been released from prison based on DNA exoneration, and approximately 70% of these faulty imprisonments were due, at least in part, to mistaken eyewitness identification. This makes our research very important nationally, internationally, as well as locally, as many DNA exonerations have come from nearby Dallas county. Our recent experiments have focused on various lineup manipulations in order to increase eyewitness identification accuracy. In addition, we focus on certain estimator variables such as weapon presence, crime duration, and distance between eyewitness and perpetrator. We also are growing more interested in the relationship among accuracy, confidence, and response time for eyewitness decision-making during an identification task. A recent branch of research involves how potential jurors evaluate eyewitness ID evidence. Click here for our list of publications.
Interested in joining the lab? Email Professor Carlson at curt.carlson@tamuc.edu.
Announcements
The lab's contributions to the scientific and applied literature were highlighted in an article for the front page of the Texas A&M - Commerce University's website in September of 2013.
In addition, publications produced by the lab were cited repeatedly in a report from the National Academy of Sciences (October, 2014).
In spring of 2017, the lab received a criminal justice and policing reform grant from the Charles Koch Foundation.
The lab was included in a Discovery Channel documentary released in spring of 2018.
The National Institute of Justice awarded a 3-year grant to the lab, starting spring 2019. It has been extended to end of 2022.
Curt was interviewed in April of 2023 after testifying in a case in Oklahoma City.
