Carla MacLean
BA (UVic), M.Sc. (SMU), PhD (UVic), Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship (SFU)
Dr. MacLean joined the Psychology Department as a faculty member in 2012. Prior to this, she was a SSHRC post-doctoral researcher at Simon Fraser University. In her research and my lectures, she pursues topics that apply social and cognitive theory to worlds outside the lab. For more about her background and interests you can find an interview with her here. She greatly enjoys working with students at KPU to develop original research and then supporting those students in sharing their findings broadly.
Courses taught
- Psyc 1100 Introduction to Psychology: Basic Processes
- Psyc 1200 Introduction to Psychology: Areas and Applications
- Psyc 2330 Social Psychology
- Psyc 3451 Psychology and Law
- Psyc 3950 Cognitive Ergonomics
Areas of Interest
Dr. MacLean's research explores factors that affect professional decision making and eyewitness recall for critical events (workplace and criminal). For her, compelling factors are the effects of context and motivation in the investigative process. She studies how factors such as expertise, stereotypes, environment, allegiances, or state affect decision making and recall. Her research considers topics such as confirmation bias/tunnel vision and investigative interviewing.
Read a recent interview with Dr. MacLean in IOSH Magazine about bias in workplace investigation (Nov/Dec 2023): Side-Step the Confirmation Bias Trap
Contact Dr. Maclean to discuss research! She supervises honours students and her students are highly successful at winning the Canadian Psychology Association (CPA) Research Award.
Scholarly Work
- MacLean, C. L., & Miller, G. S. (2024). Trust but verify: The biasing effects of witness opinions and background knowledge in workplace investigations. Journal of Safety Research. Doi: 10.31234/osf.io/7vxu3
- MacLean, C. L., & Dror, I. E. (2023). Measuring base-rate bias error in workplace safety investigators. Journal of Safety Research, 84, 108-116.
- MacLean, C. L. (2022). Cognitive bias in workplace investigation: Problems, perspectives and proposed solutions. Journal of Applied Ergonomics, 105
- MacLean, C. L., & Dror, I. E. (2021). The biasing effect of contextual information on professional judgment: Cognitive contamination in workplace safety inspection. Journal of Safety Research, 77, 13- 22. Doi: 10.1016/j.jsr.2021.01.002
- Dror, I. E., Scherr, K. C., Mohammed, L. A., MacLean, C. L. & Cunningham, L. (2021). Biasability and reliability of expert forensic document examiners. Forensic Science International, 318.
- MacLean, C. L., Smith, L. & Dror, I. E. (2020). Experts on trial: Unearthing bias in scientific evidence. University of British Columbia Law Review, 53(1) 101-140.
- MacLean, C. L., Gabbert, F. & Hope, L. (2019) The Self‐Administered Witness Interview Tool (SAW‐IT): Enhancing witness recall of workplace incidents. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 33, 1212–1223.
- MacLean, C. L. & Read, J. D. (2019). An illusion of objectivity in workplace investigation: The cause analysis chart and consistency, accuracy, and bias in judgements. Journal of Safety Research, 68, 139 – 148.doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2018.12.008
- MacLean, C.L., Coburn, P.I., Chong, K., Connolly, D.L. (2018). Breaking script: Deviations and postevent information in adult memory for a repeated event. Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology. 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3421
- Weinsheimer, C. C., Coburn, P. I., Chong, K., MacLean, C. L., & Connolly, D. A. (2017). Perceptions of credibility for a memory report of a single versus repeated event. Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology. doi:10.1002/acp.3340
- MacLean, C.L. & Dror, I.E., (2016). A Primer on the Psychology of Cognitive Bias. In Robertson, C.T., Kesselheim, A.S. (Eds.), Blinding as a Solution to Bias: Strengthening Biomedical Science, Forensic Science, and Law. Academic Press, 13-24.
- MacLean, C. L., Brimacombe, C. A. E, & Lindsay, D. S. (2013) Investigating industrial investigators: The role of A Priori knowledge and tunnel vision education. Law and Human Behaviour, 37. doi: 10.1037/lhb0000056
- MacLean, C. L., Brimacombe, C. A. E, Allison, M., Dahl, L. C., & Kadlec, H. (2011) Post-identification feedback effects: Investigators and evaluators. Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25, 739 – 752.
- MacLean, C. L., Stinson, V., Kelloway, E. K., & Fisher, R. P. (2011). Improving workplace incident investigations by enhancing memory recall. International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 4, 257 – 273.
- Kelloway, K., Stinson, V. & MacLean, C. L. (2004). Can eyewitness research improve occupational health and safety? Towards a research agenda. Journal of Law and Human Behaviour, 28(1), 115 - 132.
- * Preprints of most papers can be found on Research Gate