Dr Emma Portch
- 01202 965043
- eportch at bournemouth dot ac dot uk
- Senior Lecturer in Psychology
- Poole House P127, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
Biography
Following my undegraduate degree in Psychology (Royal Holloway) I completed a MSc in Forensic Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. I then moved to Leeds, where I completed a one-year research post, assessing the relationship between cognitive interviewing techniques, verbal overshadowing, and computerised facial composite construction (supervised by Dr Charity Brown and Professor Charlie Frowd). I stayed in Leeds to complete my PhD. My thesis explored the influence of (language-anchored) conceptual knowledge on the interpretation of facial expressions of emotion (supervised by Dr Charity Brown, Dr Jelena Havelka and Dr Russell Hutter). In 2016 I then joined the University of Manchester as a member of research staff and worked on a two-year project to assess whether the novel application of motion parameters improve the recognisability of facial composites (supervised by Dr Karen Lander, Professor Timothy Cootes, and Professor Charlie Frowd). I started my lectureship at Bournemouth University in January 2018.
Research
I have two broad research interests. First, how (language-anchored) conceptual knowledge can directly or indirectly influence the visual perception of categorisable stimuli (emotional faces and objects). Second, how psychological factors can impact upon the construction and subsequent recognition of computerised facial composites (frequently produced during police investigations). I am currently involved in projects that investigate the impact of cognitive interviewing mnemonics, facial visualisation techniques, facial animation, and individual target-face characteristics (attractiveness and disguise).
Journal Articles
- Erickson, W.B., Portch, E. et al., 2024. The impact of weapons and unusual objects on the construction of facial composites. Psychology, Crime and Law, 30 (3), 207-228.
- Portch, E., Moseley, R.L., Wignall, L., Turner-Cobb, J.M., Taylor, Z. and Gondelle, M., 2023. ‘Welcome to my world’: a thematic analysis of the lived experiences of people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis during the UK COVID-19 lockdown. Psychology and Health.
- Portch, E., Wignall, L. and Bate, S., 2023. Why can people with developmental prosopagnosia recognise some familiar faces? Insights from subjective experience. PeerJ, 11.
- Turner-Cobb, J.M., Arden-Close, E., Portch, E. and Wignall, L., 2022. Men and Women as Differential Social Barometers: Gender Effects of Perceived Friend Support on the Neuroticism-Loneliness-Well-Being Relationship in a Younger Adult Population. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (13).
- Bate, S., Portch, E. and Mestry, N., 2021. When two fields collide: Identifying “super-recognisers” for neuropsychological and forensic face recognition research. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 74 (12), 2154-2164.
- Cascalheira, C.J., McCormack, M., Portch, E. and Wignall, L., 2021. Changes in Sexual Fantasy and Solitary Sexual Practice During Social Lockdown Among Young Adults in the UK. Sexual Medicine, 9 (3).
- Wignall, L., Portch, E., McCormack, M., Owens, R., Cascalheira, C.J., Attard-Johnson, J. and Cole, T., 2021. Changes in Sexual Desire and Behaviors among UK Young Adults During Social Lockdown Due to COVID-19. Journal of Sex Research, 58 (8), 976-985.
- Richardson, B.H., Portch, E. et al., 2020. The Advantage of Low and Medium Attractiveness for Facial Composite Production from Modern Forensic Systems. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 9 (3), 381-395.
- Bate, S., Bennetts, R., Murray, E. and Portch, E., 2020. Enhanced Matching of Children’s Faces in “Super-Recognisers” But Not High-Contact Controls. i-Perception, 11 (4).
- Brown, C., Portch, E., Nelson, L. and Frowd, C.D., 2020. Reevaluating the role of verbalization of faces for composite production: Descriptions of offenders matter! J Exp Psychol Appl, 26 (2), 248-265.
- Bate, S., Frowd, C., Bennetts, R., Hasshim, N., Portch, E., Murray, E. and Dudfield, G., 2019. The consistency of superior face recognition skills in police officers. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33 (5), 828-842.
- Bate, S., Portch, E., Mestry, N. and Bennetts, R.J., 2019. Redefining super recognition in the real world: Skilled face or person identity recognizers? British Journal of Psychology, 110 (3), 480-482.
- Brown, C., Portch, E., Skelton, F.C., Fodarella, C., Kuivaniemi-Smith, H., Herold, K., Hancock, P.J.B. and Frowd, C.D., 2019. The impact of external facial features on the construction of facial composites. Ergonomics, 62 (4), 575-592.
- Bate, S., Bennetts, R., Hasshim, N., Portch, E., Murray, E., Burns, E. and Dudfield, G., 2019. The limits of super recognition: An other-ethnicity effect in individuals with extraordinary face recognition skills. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 45 (3), 363-377.
- Portch, E., Logan, K. and Frowd, C.D., 2017. Interviewing and visualisation techniques: Attempting to further improve EvoFIT facial composites. IEEE Emerging Security Technologies.
- Brown, C., Portch, E. and Frowd, C.D., 2017. Tell me again about the face: Using repeated interviewing techniques to improve feature-based facial composite technologies. IEEE Emerging Security Technologies.
- Portch, E., Havelka, J., Brown, C. and Giner-Sorolla, R., 2015. Using affective knowledge to generate and validate a set of emotion-related, action words. PeerJ.
- Alonga, V.K. and et al., 2014. Registered Replication Report: Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990). Perspectives on Psychological Science.
Chapters
- Portch, E., Attard-Johnson, J., Estudillo, A.J., Mestry, N. and Bate, S., 2024. “Super-recognizers” and the Legal System. The Impact of Technology on the Criminal Justice System: A Psychological Overview. 272-300.
- Bate, S., Mestry, N. and Portch, E., 2021. Individual Differences Between Observers in Face Matching. Forensic Face Matching: Research and Practice. 115-143.
Conferences
- Lander, K., Portch, E. and Frowd, C., 2021. Recognising Moving Face Composites. In: International Association of Craniofacial Identification 23 July 2021 Virtual.
- Parker, K., Portch, E., Frowd, C.D. and Liu, C.H., 2020. Streamlining EvoFIT composite construction: Exploring the relationship between array number and composite recognisability. In: British Psychological Society Annual Conference 30 June-1 July 2020 University of Leeds.
- Frowd, C.D., Portch, E., Killeen, A., Mullen, L., Martin, A.J. and Hancock, P.J.B., 2019. EvoFIT facial composite images: a detailed assessment of impact on forensic practitioners, police investigators, victims, witnesses, offenders and the media. In: IEEE Emerging Security Technologies 9 September-12 December 2019 University of Essex.
- Frowd, C., Portch, E., Walmsley, L., Jackson, E., Robertson, B., Rynn, C. and Hancock, P., 2018. Using familiar face identities to facilitate traditional feature-based composite construction. In: BPS Cognitive Section Annual Conference 29-31 August 2018 Liverpool.
Posters
- Portch, E., Meade-Hill, R., Campbell, R. and Bate, S., 2019. Does stage in the menstrual cycle impact unfamiliar face recognition? In: Experimental Psychology Society.
PhD Students
- Amy Purcell. The role of external facial features and focus of attention in the construction of holistic facial composites.
- Claire Ford. Going it alone: Combining self-administered interview techniques with EvoFIT’s self-administered facial composite construction
Profile of Teaching PG
- Forensic Perspectives in Face Processing (L7, IFP)
Profile of Teaching UG
- Cultural Psychology (CUPS; L6)
- Human-Computer Interaction (L4)
Grants
- Streamlining EvoFIT composite construction: Exploring the relationship between array number and composite recognisability (British Psychological Society, 01 Jul 2019). Completed
Internal Responsibilities
- Internal ethics panel member, Psychology department
- L5 Year Tutor, Psychology
- External research seminar coordinator, Department of Psychology
Journal Reviewing/Refereeing
- Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 01 Sep 2021
- Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications / Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications - a SpringerOpen journal, Anonymous peer review, 02 Aug 2021
- Journal of European Psychology Students, 02 Aug 2021
- Applied Cognitive Psychology, Anonymous peer review, 01 Jan 2018
- Mindfulness, Anonymous peer review, 01 Jan 2018
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Anonymous peer review, 01 Jan 2018
- IEEE Emerging Security Technologies, Anonymous peer review, 01 Jan 2017
- PLoS ONE, Open peer review, 01 Jan 2016
- European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Anonymous peer review, 01 Jan 2016
Public Engagement & Outreach Activities
- Constructing the face of a criminal
- Do some people have super-human face recognition skills? (2019)
- The changing face of crime: how can we improve the recognisability of facial composites? (2019)
Conference Presentations
- European Association of Psychology and Law, Does animation improve the ability to match unfamiliar facial composites?, 28 May 2017, Belgium
- Experimental Psychology Society, Animating famous face composites and the recognition of identity., 04 Jan 2017, UCL
- Asian Pacific Conference on Vision, Detecting emotional expressions: do words help?, 14 Jul 2016, Western Australia
- International Society for Research on Emotion, Language and Conceptual knowledge: How might the two interact to support emotion perception?, 07 Jul 2015, University of Geneva
- 15th European Conference on Facial Expression, Measure and Meaning, Emotion perception at threshold: Does language help?, 06 Jul 2015, University of Geneva
- Experimental Psychology Society, Does language play a direct or indirect role in emotion perception?, 08 Apr 2015, University of Leeds
- European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCOP), Shaping emotion: What role might emotion words play?, 29 Aug 2013, ELTE conference centre, Budapest
- SARMAC, The Holistic-Cognitive Interview: When is it the most effective for improving composite quality?, 26 Jun 2013, University of Rotterdam
- BPS Cognitive Section, Investigating composite construction under forensically-relevant conditions: the effects of verbal recall, post-encoding delay and intentional and incidental face encoding on the quality of facial com, 29 Aug 2012, University of Glasgow
- Fifth International Investigative Interviewing Conference, Applied issues in facial composite construction: the effects of verbal recall, post-encoding delay and intentional and incidental face encoding on the quality of facial composites., 24 May 2012, Toronto, Canada
- European Association of Psychology and Law Conference, Constructing Facial Composites: Increasing the Forensic Relevance of Laboratory Research., 10 Apr 2012, University of Cyprus
- Fifth International Conference on Memory (ICOM), Is Fantasy Proneness related to a more exhaustive memory search?, 01 Aug 2011, University of York, UK
Qualifications
- PhD in Cognitive Psychology (University of Leeds, 2016)
- MSc in Forensic Psychology (University of Portsmouth, 2011)
- BSc (Hons) in Psychology (Royal Holloway, University of London, 2010)
Memberships
- Higher Education Academy, Fellow (2018-),
- IEEE Emerging Security Technologies, Conference paper peer reviewer (2017-),
- British Psychological Society, Member,
- European Association of Psychology and Law, Member,
- International Society for Research on Emotion, Member,
External Media and Press
- The problem with using ‘super recognisers’ to spot criminals in a crowd, The Conversation, 18 Oct 2018. https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-using-super-recognisers-to-spot-criminals-in-a-crowd-104992
- The people who never forget a face, BBC World Service- Health Check, 12 Sep 2018. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06l29ts
- ‘Super-recognisers’ employed by UK police to hunt criminals may not be identifying people correctly, study suggests, The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/facial-recognition-super-recognisers-police-met-salisbury-attack-british-science-festival-a8533361.html