Prof Coral Dando
I returned to education in 2002 following almost 10 years service as a London Police Officer. I completed a BSc. (Hons) Psychology and a PhD in Applied Forensic Cognition, awarded in 2008. I completed a Post-Doctoral Research post at the University of Leicester concerned with detecting deception using 'scent' trail data, followed by 5 years as a Lecturer at Lancaster University. In 2014 I joined the Institute of Psychology at the University of Wolverhampton as a Reader. In 2016 I moved to the University of Westminster as a Professor of Psychology.
I am an expert witness, a Health and Care Practitioner Council Consultant Forensic Psychologist (Rg. No. PYL28287), a British Psychological Society Chartered Psychologist (177597), Chartered Scientist, and Associate Fellow. I am a Restorative Justice practitioner
My area of research is best described as applied social cognition. That is, how complex cognitive processes and associated behaviours - eyewitness memory; decision making; verbal deception; intelligence gathering - are impacted by the social contexts in which they occur. I am concerned with how the environments within which these cognitions occur might be managed and manipulated to best effect. I have a particular interest in forensic and security contexts.
Example Research funding (+ 2.5 Million GBP since 2010)
2020 - Home Office Police STAR Board fund: £89,000. Understanding the impact of county lines: Enhancing investigative methods, sentencing deterrents and evidence based analysis
2019 - University of Westminster Research Communities. £12,953.County lines exploitation: Being a victim and an offender and reintegrating back into society.
2018 - British Academy/Leverhulme £9,947 (with Dr. Donna Taylor) Rapport building in Virtual Environments for information gain.
2017 – UK MoD for £27,000. Cross-cultural cognition in context.
2016 - US Dept. of Homeland Security, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), for $469,000. Intelligence Interviewing: Controlled Cognitive Engagement, Cross-cultural Persuasion, & Cognitive Style
2016 - Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), for €67,500. Cognition in Context: Applying CCE to amplify behaviour change and detect deception in aviation security settings.
2014 - UK Development, Science, and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) Research Project Grant for £90,000.
2012 - Higher Education Academy, Teaching Fellowship Research Grant for £10,000 (for 1 year).
2011 - US Department of Homeland Security, Transport Security and Administration. Research grant for £299,000. Interviewing to detect verbal deception in an aviation security setting.
2012 - Security-Lancaster, research project grant for £1875. Human inference and professional domains in which inference arises as a central task: Decision-making in time-critical environments.
2010 - Centre for the Protection of National Infra Structure (CPNI) project grant for £251,000, Detecting Insider Threats: Techniques, Simulations and Observations (DITTOS).
2010 - EPSRC Pathways to Impact grant. £6000.
2009 - Centre for the Protection of National Infra Structure (CPNI) project grant for £145,000. Controlled Cognitive Engagement: Evaluation of a behaviour based method for aviation screening. With Prof. Tom Ormerod (University of Sussex).
2009 - Centre for the Protection of National Infra Structure (CPNI) project grant for £722,714.00, Development of FCT and Cognitive Interview methods in Native and Non-native Populations with Prof. Paul Taylor (Lancaster); Dr. Gary Hazlett, Woodard- Cody, Prof. Andy Morgan (Psychiatry, Yale); Dr. Yaron Rabinowitz (Psychology, Texas); Prof. Tom Ormerod (University of Sussex)
2009 - Higher Education Innovation Fund Grant for £147,000. Disseminating Investigative expertise with Prof. Paul Taylor (Lancaster) & Prof. Tom Ormerod (University of Sussex).