Qualifications

PhD, University of Warwick, UK
MA, University of Munich, Germany

Personal Profile / Teaching Experience

Module leader:
Forensic Psychology

Contributor:
Foundations of Cognitive Psychology
Language and Thought
Learning, Memory and Perception

Research Interests

Currently, my research interests follow three threads:

• Psychology and Law. Broadly, I am interested in the causes that lead to wrongful convictions and in particular in the circumstances under which eyewitness misidentifications are likely to occur. My research, designed in collaboration with various police forces across the UK, focuses on improving police lineup procedures for suspects with distinguishing features. I am also interested in the influences of facial distinctiveness on jurors' evaluations of defendants.
• Positive Emotions. In this line of research, I am investigating the effects of positive emotions. In particular I am investigating whether awe-inspiring experiences, often seen as offering only hedonistic, short-term pleasure, can have the potential for long-term positive effects on intrapersonal and interpersonal well being.
• Embodied Cognition. In this line of research I am looking into how bodily states affect our judgment and decision-making processes especially as applied to legal contexts. Research has shown that people intuitively associate physical states with abstract concepts, feelings, and perceptions, often reflected in everyday language (e.g., feeling "up" for feeling good and feeling "down" for feeling bad). Following this line of research, I am currently investigating whether certain verbal expressions have an embodied basis and as such are linked to specific sensorimotor experiences.

Consultancy and other professional activity:

• Affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge (since October 2012)
• Member of the Southeast-Eyewitness Network (SEEN)
• Member of the Applied, Social, and Health Psychology Research Group, Anglia Ruskin University
• Member of the Association for Psychological Science
• Member of the European Association of Psychology and Law
• Reviewer for Psychology, Crime, and Law

Publications

Zarkadi, T., Stewart, N., & Wade, K. A. Lineups for suspects with distinguishing marks: Testing eyewitness accuracy and confidence within a forensically relevant paradigm. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Zarkadi, T., Schnall, S., & Benforado, A. (revision and invited resubmission). Tilting the scales of justice: Perceptual imbalance skews judgments of fairness. British Journal of Social Psychology.

Zarkadi, T., & Schnall, S. (in press). "Black and white" thinking: Visual contrast polarizes moral judgment. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Zarkadi, T., Wade, K. A., & Stewart, N. (2009). Creating fair lineups for suspects with distinctive features. Psychological Science, 20, 1448-1453.

Conference presentations:

Schnall, S., & Zarkadi, T., & Benforado, A. (2012, May). Fair and balanced, or "black and white" thinking? Perceptual experiences and judgments of morality and fairness. Paper presented at the 24th annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Zarkadi, T. & Valentine, T. (2012, May). Testing a New Technique for Creating Lineups for Suspects with Distinguishing Marks. Poster presented at the 24th annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Valentine, T., & Zarkadi, T. (2012, May). Eyewitness misidentification: Innocent suspects with distinguishing marks are at particular risk. Poster presented at the 24th annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Stewart, N., Zarkadi, T., & Wade, K. A. (2012, May). Identification of suspects is not based on global familiarity. Poster presented at the 24th annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Zarkadi, T., & Valentine, T. (2012, May). Eyewitness misidentification: Are innocent suspects with distinguishing marks at particular risk? Paper presented at the South-East Eyewitness Conference, University of Greenwich, UK.

Zarkadi, T., & Schnall, S. (2012, April). Black and white visual contrast primes "black and white" moral thinking. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference, London, UK. (Runner-up for the best poster-presentation award)

Zarkadi, T., & Valentine, T. (2012, April). Police lineups for suspects with distinguishing marks: Suggestive instructions increase identification rates of innocent foils. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference, London, UK.

Zarkadi, T., Benforado, A., & Schnall, S. (2012, April). Tilting the scales of justice: Perceptual imbalance skews judgments of fairness. Poster presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference, London, UK.

Zarkadi, T., & Valentine, T. (2012, April). Eyewitness misidentification: Are innocent suspects with distinguishing marks at particular risk? Paper presented at the 21st conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Nicosia, Cyprus.

Zarkadi, T., Benforado, A., & Schnall, S. (2012, April). Intuitions about fairness and justice: An embodied-cognition account. Poster presented at the 21st conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Nicosia, Cyprus.

Schnall, S., Zarkadi, T., & Benforado, A. (2012, January). Fair and balanced, or "black and white" thinking? Perceptual experiences and judgments of morality and fairness. Paper presented at the 13th annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, CA.

Schnall, S., & Zarkadi, T. (2011, October). Embodiment and morality. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Washington, D.C.

Zarkadi, T., & Schnall, S. (2011, May). Embodied morality: Effects of perceptual experiences on judgments of morality and fairness. Paper presented at the Social Cognition Conference, University College London, UK.

Wade, K. A., Zarkadi, T., & Stewart, N. (2010, May). Creating identification parades for suspects with distinctive features. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference, Glasgow, UK.

Zarkadi, T., Stewart, N., & Wade, K. A. (2009, May). Creating lineups: Replication of suspect's distinctive feature is better than removal and pixelation. Poster presented at the 21st annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, San Francisco, CA.

Zarkadi, T., Wade, K. A., & Stewart, N. (2008, July). On committing a crime: better to glue on a fake moustache before than grow one after. Poster presented at the 18th conference of the European Association of Psychology and Law, Maastricht, The Netherlands. (Award for best poster presentation)

Zarkadi, T., Wade, K. A., & Stewart, N. (2008, May). Improving lineups: Replicating a target's distinctive feature across foils is better than concealing it. Poster presented at the 20th annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL.

Research Funding:

University of Bedfordshire, Research Investment Programme (Awarded: May 2012)
Title: "Eye movement behaviour during witness identification of perpetrators with distinguishing features" (with Christopher Hand, University of Bedfordshire and Tim Valentine, Goldsmiths, University of London).
Awarded Amount: £15,123

University of Bedfordshire, ("Rising Stars" award) (Awarded: January 2012)
Title: "Lineups for suspects with distinctive features: Testing a new technique"
Awarded Amount: £9,342

Economic and Social Research Council RES-000-22-4453 (Awarded: December 2010)
Title: "The Experience of Awe in Nature" (with Simone Schnall, University of Cambridge)
Awarded Amount: £99,672

University of Cambridge, Newton Trust Grant (Awarded: June 2010)
Title: "Environmental Factors Affecting Eyewitness Decision-Making" (with Simone Schnall, University of Cambridge)
Awarded Amount: £488

Selected research coverage in international press:

Times Higher Education. January 2013. Colouring the argument.

Times of India. December 2012. Black and white colours affect our judgment.

Daily Mail. December 2012. No grey areas: Seeing the colours black and white can actually lead to more extreme views.

CNBC. December 2012. Black and white can lead you to make extreme judgments.

New Scientist. May, 2012. Judge Mental: How bias affects judicial sentences.