RESEARCH INTERESTS

Developmental Psychology

- development of deception
- social and cognitive development
- moral development
- cross-cultural differences
- child witnesses

I am a developmental psychologist with a focus on the influence of children's social and cognitive development on their moral understanding and behaviour. I use experimental methods to systematically study children's understanding of deception and their actual deceptive behaviours both in the laboratory and in the field. I also examine cultural factors that influence children's understanding and evaluation of lies in different contexts, as well as their actual lie-telling behaviours. Additionally, I am interested in issues related to child eyewitness testimony such as children's competency, credibility, and our ability to detect their lies.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Evans, A.D., & Lyon, T.D. (2011). Assessing children's competency to take the oath in court: The influence of question type on children's accuracy. Law and Human Behaviour. doi:10.1007/s10979-011-9280-6.

Evans, A.D., & Lee, K. (2011). Performance on executive functioning tasks and lie-telling behaviors in 8- to 16-year-olds. Developmental Psychology. doi: 10.1037/a0023425

Evans, A.D., Xu, F., & Lee, K. (2011). When all signs point to you: Lies told in the face of evidence. Developmental Psychology, 47, 39-49. doi: 10.1037/a0020787

Li, A.S., Kelley, E.A., Evans, A.D., & Lee, K. (2011). Exploring the ability to deceive in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41, 185-195. DOI 10.1007/s10803-010-1045-4

Evans, A.D., & Lee, K. (2010). Promising to tell the truth makes 8- to 16-year olds more honest. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 28, 801-811. doi: 10.1002/bsl.960

Bala, N., Evans, A.D., & Bala, E. (2010). Hearing the voices of children in the Canadian criminal justice system: Recognizing capacity and facilitating testimony. Child and Family Law Quarterly, 22, 21-45.

Evans, A.D., Roberts, K.P., Price, H., & Stefek, C. (2010). The use of paraphrasing in investigative interviews. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34, 585-592.

Evans, A.D., & Roberts, K.P. (2009). Can paraphrasing increase length, richness and accuracy of reports from young child witnesses? Psychology Crime and Law, 15, 531-548.

Evans, A.D., Lee, K., & Lyon, T. (2009). Complex questions asked by defense lawyers but not prosecutors predicts convictions in child abuse trials. Law and Human Behavior, 33, 258-264.

Fu, G., Evans, A.D., Wang, L., & Lee, K. (2008). Lying in the name of the collective good: A developmental study. Developmental Science, 11, 495-503.