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  2. Dr Camilla Elphick

Dr Camilla Elphick

Profile summary

  • Research Staff
  • Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Psychology
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Psychology & Counselling
  • Psychology
  • camilla.elphick

Web links

Professional biography

I have a phd in psychology from the University of Sussex, where I investigated pupillary responses to faces as a measure of implicit recognition in police lineups, supervised by Graham Hole. We found that pupillary responses were different when looking at a previously-seen face than novel faces in a lineup, and that they occurred independently of the conscious identification response given. This novel method was developed as a means to improving eyewitness identification procedures, by bypassing conscious identification decisions. In this capacity, I have funding from the Open University to explore the translation of pupillometry to real world police and legal settings.

I am currently a post doctoral research associate in psychology at the Open University, where I work closely with Graham Pike, Zoe Walkington and Lara Frumkin for a citizen forensics project. This aims to improve communications between citizens and institutions (e.g. police).  I am also an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, teaching DE100: Investigating Psychology, and I am writing materials for DD210: Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary.

I was employed until 2019 as a researcher for an AI reporting tool called Spot, which is freely available for people to report workplace harassment and discrimination they have experienced or seen. I worked with Julia Shaw and Rashid Minhas.

I have been involved in work by Graham Hole and Gemma Briggs, which addresses the dangers of driving while talking on mobile phones. 

I have also launched the first psychological research into Wiedermann-Steiner Syndrome, which has only recently been genetically identified. In this capacity, I have initated a WSS Psychology Lab with Nicola Yuill and Jessica Marshall at The University of Sussex.

My research interests thus lie mainly in the application of psychology to make positive changes to 'real world' issues.

If you are interested in taking part in our most recent eyewitness research, please click here.

Research interests

Conferences:

September 2019: Poster at BPS Cognitive Developmental Conference, Stoke on Trent

  • One Small Step: Understanding Wiedemann-Steiner Syndrome (WSS) 

June 2019: Presentation at SARMAC, Cape Cod, USA. 

  • Spot On: A Harassment Reporting Chatbot that Protects Evidence Using Artificial Intelligence and a Cognitive Interview 

Aug 2018: Presentation at the BPS Annual Cognitive Conference, Liverpool. 

  • You can believe your eyes: measuring implicit recognition in a lineup with pupillometry.
  • Getting something extra out of introverts: Reporting harassment to a CI chatbot

June 2017: Division of Forensic Psychology Annual Conference, poster presentation: 

  • Pupillometry and Credibility: Distinguishing between recognition and no recognition in eyewitnesses who make no identification.

May 2017: Presentation at BPS Annual Cognitive Conference, Brighton. 

  • Can we identify eyewitness identification? Pupil size: A measure of recognition in target present lineups.

Sept 2016: Presentation at BPS Annual Cognitive Conference, Barcelona. 

  • Pupil size: A measure of identification accuracy in a simultaneous lineup.

Written submissions:

Elphick, C.; Stuart, A.; Philpot, R.; Walkington, Z.; Frumkin, L.; Zhang, M.; Levine, M.; Price, B.; Pike, G.; Nuseibeh, B.; Bandara, A. (under review). Altruism and anxiety: Engagement with online community support initiatives (OCSIs) during Covid-19 lockdown in the UK and Ireland​. 

In preprint  here.

Elphick, C.; Philpot, R.;  Zhang, M.; Stuart, A.; Walkington, Z.; Frumkin, L; Pike, G.; Gardner, K.; Lacey, M.; Levine, M.; Price, B.; Bandara, A.; Nuseibeh, B. (accepted). Building trust in digital policing: A scoping review of community policing apps. Police Practice and Research

In preprint  here.

Elphick C., Minhas, R., Shaw J. (under review). Everybody knows: The importance of speaking up about witnessed workplace harassment and discrimination. Administrative Science Quarterly

Minhas, R., Elphick C., Shaw J. (under review). Evidentiary AI: Reporting experiences of workplace harassment and discrimination to a chatbot​. AI and Society

In preprint  here.

Shaw J., Elphick, C. & Minhas, R. (July, 2019).  Witnessing workplace harassment and discrimination: Overcoming the ‘social contagion’ of toxic work culture.

Shaw J., Minhas, R., & Elphick, C. (March, 2018) Written Submission to the Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.

Hole, G., Elphick, C., & Briggs, G. (December, 2018) Policy Brief: Think talking on your hands-free while driving is safe? Think again.

Hole G., Elphick, C., & Briggs, G. (December, 2018) Policy Document: Tackling the dangers of using hands-free mobiles while driving.

Teaching interests

2020 Associate Lecturer DE100, The Open University:

  • Investigating psychology

2020 Writing online material for DD210, The Open University:

  • Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary

2019 Guest lecturer, University of West London: 

  • Interactive Memory Workshop.

​2017 Guest lecturer, The University of Sussex: 

Psychology of Forensic Investigation and Analysis

  • Problems with eyewitness testimony
  • Face composite systems

2015, 2016, 2017 Associate tutor, The University of Sussex: 

  • Research Skills in Psychology One.
  • Research Skills in Psychology Two.

Supervision

2019 Supervision for JRA

2017 3rd Year Undergraduate Co-supervision

2016 Support for JRA candidate

Impact and engagement

February 2020: Security and Policing 2020

June 2019: Expert on panel at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, for Virtual Human Rights Lawyer (VHRL) Expert Panel on Human Rights App and Community Testing

May 2019: Presentation at a conference and training event: Developments in Facial Identification in Eyewitness Testimony

  • Measuring recognition in lineups with pupillometry.

March 2019: Guest lecturer, University of West London:

  • Interactive Memory Workshop.

Jan 2019: Webinar.

  • Overcoming barriers to reporting harassment & discrimination: How AI can augment HR.

Oct 2018: Presentation at Intelligent Futures: Automation, AI and Cognitive Ecologies, University of Sussex: 

  • Artificial Intelligence for Good: Improving harassment reporting with a chatbot called Spot.

Oct  2018: UNLEASH, 8th Annual World Conference and Expo, The Future of Work and HR Tech. Amsterdam. 

July 2018: Presentation at LGBT STEM day, University of Sussex: 

  • Can AI help LGBTQ+ people report workplace harassment safely and effectively?

May 2018: Presentation at Get Psyched with US, University of Sussex: 

  • Is it possible to measure an eyewitness’s credibility?

Nov 2016: Presentation at the Crime Research Centre, University of Sussex. 

  • Face recognition and Police identification procedures.
 

Publications

You can believe your eyes: measuring implicit recognition in a lineup with pupillometry (2020)
Elphick, Camilla E. J.; Pike, Graham E. and Hole, Graham J.
Psychology, Crime and Law, 26(1) (pp. 67-92)

Towards Citizen Forensics: Improving Citizen-Police Collaboration (2020)
Bandara, Arosha; Zhang, Min; Price, Blaine; Pike, Graham; Elphick, Camilla; Walkington, Zoe; Frumkin, Lara; Philpot, Richard; Levine, Mark; Stuart, Avelie and Nuseibeh, Bashar
In : Workshop on Crime and/or Punishment: Joining the Dots between Crime, Legality and HCI, Extended Abstracts of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (25-30 Apr 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA)

Designing Technologies for Community Policing (2020)
Zhang, Min; Bandara, Arosha; Price, Blaine; Pike, Graham; Walkington, Zoe; Elphick, Camilla; Frumkin, Lara; Philpot, Richard; Levine, Mark; Stuart, Avelie and Nuseibeh, Bashar
In : Extended Abstracts of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Late Breaking Work) (25-30 Apr 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA)

Pupil changes linked to eyewitness memory strength in police lineups (2019-11-04)
Elphick, Camilla; Hole, Graham and Welsh, Lucy
The Conversation

In the #MeToo era, a chatbot can help people report workplace harassment (2018-03-19)
Shaw, Julia and Elphick, Camilla
The Conversation