Ebbe Ebbesen
Dr. Ebbesen's current research interests, although always related to social psychology, are rather broad. They include cognitive psychology, learning and motivation, the organization of social systems, and methodological and measurement problems in each area.
One subfield concerns psychology and the law. Within this field he studies legal decision making. What are the factors that participants in the legal system (judges, probation officers, district attorneys, jurors, etc.) take into account when deciding such things as sentencing, bail setting, child custody, and whether to prosecute. He also studies a number of psychological topics about which the legal system makes assumptions (e.g., the reliability of eye witness reports and the influence of pretrial bias on the fairness of jurors). Multiple methods are generally used in all of this work.
Within the eyewitness accuracy area, he is studying the relative diagnostic value of meta-cognitive self-knowledge. Are we better off asking people how well they remember things or knowing the conditions under which those things were learned? He is also studying people's ability to judge their own impartiality.
Primary Interests:
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Law and Public Policy
- Motivation, Goal Setting
- Research Methods, Assessment
- Social Cognition
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Journal Articles:
- Ebbesen, E. B., & Rienick, C. (1998). Retention interval and eyewitness memory for events and personal identifiers. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 745-762.
- Konecni, V. J., & Ebbesen, E. B. (1986). Courtroom testimony by psychologists on eyewitness identification issues. Law and Human Behavior, 10, 117-126.
- Wixted, J., & Ebbesen, E. (1991). On the form of forgetting. Psychological Science, 2, 409-415.
Other Publications:
- Ebbesen, E. B. (1981). Cognitive processes in inferences about a person's personality. In E. T. Higgins, C. P. Herman, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Social Cognition, The Ontario Symposium, Vol. 1 , 247-276.
Courses Taught:
- Conducting the Science of Psychology
- Methods in Applied Social Psychology
- Psychology and Social Policy
- Psychology and the Law
