Nydia T. Ayala Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Behavioral Science

Parmly 234
540-458-8839
nayala@wlu.edu
Website

Education

Ph.D. – Iowa State University (2024)
B.A. – Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada (2014)

Research

My research is broadly focused on the information police investigators can glean from eyewitness identification procedures such as police lineups. Any given witness demonstrates a myriad of behaviors when completing a lineup procedure—such as expressions of confidence, decision time, and vocalized decision strategies—that can inform on the likely accuracy of the witness’ identification decision. My lab is presently focused on answering two research questions:

First, what types of behaviors characterize accurate versus inaccurate witnesses?

Second, when presented with video recordings of witnesses completing lineup procedures, how do legal decision makers evaluate the reliability of the identification decisions?

Teaching

CBSC 112: Cognition
CBSC 295: Psychology & Law
CBSC 349: Memory in Everyday Life

Selected Publications

Ayala, N.T., & Smith, A.M. (2024) Predicting and postdicting eyewitness identification accuracy on forensic-object lineups. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/mac0000171

Smith, A. M., Ayala, N. T., & Ying, R. C. (2022). The rule out procedure: A signal-detection-informed approach to the collection of eyewitness identification evidence. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 29(1), 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000373

Ayala, N. T., Smith, A. M., & Ying, R. C. (2022). The rule out procedure: Increasing the potential for police investigators to detect suspect innocence from eyewitness lineup procedures. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 11(4), 489–499. https://doi.org/10.1037/mac0000018