Canada Research Chairs | Queen's Research Chairs

Professor Roderick C. L. Lindsay

Queen's Research Chair
Department of Psychology

Professor Lindsay is one of the world’s leading experts in the psychology of eyewitness identification.  His research has had enormous impact in legal reform and the development of practical guidelines for police forces throughout the English-speaking world.  In the words of one supporter, “his creative and empirical insights have been seamlessly absorbed into the mainstream and are widely known not only by eyewitness scientists and students but by lawyers, police, and others involved in criminal justice.”

Working to improve the accuracy of eyewitness identification and to reduce the rate of wrongful convictions with the development of refined techniques, Professor Lindsay has garnered an impressive publication record.  His work has appeared in prominent and prestigious journals, including such flagship publications as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Law and Human Behaviour, and Applied Cognitive Psychology.  He is also one of the most frequent presenters at the biennial meetings of two societies most interested in eyewitness issues: the American Psychology-Law Society and the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (for which he delivered the 2003 Keynote address in Aberdeen, Scotland).  Since 1983, Professor Lindsay’s work has received continuous support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Co-editor of the two-volume Handbook of Eyewitness Psychology (in press), Professor Lindsay has served as a reviewer for over a dozen leading journals and several granting agencies, including all three of Canada’s national research councils.  He currently serves on the editorial boards of four top journals, and was editor of a special issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology which focused on eyewitness identification and police line-ups (December 1999).  In 2002, Professor Lindsay was honoured by the Canadian Psychological Association with a Career Award for distinguished contributions to the application of psychology.

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