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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Amy Leach
PhD

Professor

Associate Dean, Research, Innovation and Graduate Studies

Forensic Psychology

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

Contact information

2 Simcoe Street Downtown Oshawa
2000 Simcoe Street North
Oshawa, ON L1G 0C5

amy.leach@ontariotechu.ca
thelielab.com

Background

Dr. Amy-May Leach received her Master of Arts in Developmental Psychology degree in 2002 and her PhD in Social Psychology in 2006, both from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. She also has the unique experience of having worked as a Canada Border Services Agency Officer for four years. Thus, she has direct experience with the factors that affect forensic interviewing and decision-making.

Education

  • MA, Developmental Psychology Queen's University
  • PhD, Social Psychology Queen's University

Courses taught

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Introductory Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Research and expertise

  • lie detection
  • confessions and interrogations
  • eyewitness memory
  • wrongful convictions
  • detecting lies in adults
  • false confessions
  • eyewitness identifications
  • stigma of wrongful conviction

MSc supervisor for Ryan Lahay (2019 to present): Emotion and cognitive load in non-native speakers’ deception.

PhD thesis supervisor for Lyndsay Woolridge (2016 to present). The role of accentedness, fluency, and grammar in the detection of non-native speakers’ deception.

PhD thesis supervisor for Elizabeth Elliott (2015 to present). Underlying components of lie detection decisions.

Master of Arts (MA) thesis supervisor for Elizabeth Solodukhin (2013 to 2015). Lying in a non-native language: Effects on emotionality and cognitive load.

MA thesis supervisor for Renee Snellings (2011 to 2013). The effect of language proficiency on second-language lie detection.

MA thesis supervisor for Cayla S. Da Silva (2009 to 2011). Detecting deception in second-language speakers.

2018: SSHRC, Insight Grant. Leach, A.M., Dufraimont, L., (Collaborator) & Gazaille, M. (Collaborator) Levelling the playing field: Examining the effect of language proficiency and interpreter presence on witnesses’ testimony.

2016: SSHRC, Insight Development Grant, Cutler, B. L., Leach, A.-M., (Collaborator) & Marion, S. (Collaborator) Development and validation of the Coercion Assessment Instrument for Witness and Suspect Interviews.

2011: SSHRC, Insight Development Grant. Leach, A.-M., & Ammar, N. (Collaborator). Behind the veil: Detecting the deception of concealed witnesses.

2011: SSHRC, Standard Research Grant. Leach, A.-M.Language proficiency and deception detection.

2010: American Psychology-Law Society, Grant-in-Aid. Leach, A.-M. Detecting the deception of second-language speakers.

2010: Office of Research Services/SSHRC, Internal Grant. The effect of observation on deception.

2008: Office of Research Services/SSHRC, Internal Grant.Leach, A.-M. The effects of second-language interviews on lie detection strategies.

Involvement

  • Selected publications

    Leach, A.-M., Snellings, R. L. & Gazaille, M. (2017). Observers’ language proficiencies and the detection of non-native speakers’ deception. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 31, 247-257.

    Lawrence, H., Akehurst, L., Leach, A.-M., Cherryman, J., Vrij, A., Arathoon, M., & Vernham, Z. (2017). “Look this way”: Using gaze maintenance to facilitate the detection of children’s false reports. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 31, 69-80.

    Elliott, E., & Leach, A.-M. (2016). You must be lying because I don’t understand you: Language proficiency and lie detection. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 22, 488-499.

    Leach, A.-M., Ammar, N., England, D. N., Remigio, L. M., Kleinberg, B., & Verschuere, B. (2016). Less is more?: Detecting lies in veiled witnesses. Law and Human Behavior, 40, 401-410.

    Beaudry, J. L., Lindsay, R. C. L., Leach, A.-M., Mansour, J. K., Bertrand, M. I., & Kalmet, N. (2015). The impact of evidence type, identification accuracy, lineup presentation, and lineup administration on observer belief of eyewitnesses. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 20, 343-364.

    Clow, K. A., & Leach, A.-M. (2015). Stigma and wrongful conviction: All exonerees are not perceived equal. Psychology, Crime, & Law, 21, 172-185.

    Clow, K. A., & Leach, A.-M. (2015). After innocence: Perceptions of individuals who have been wrongfully convicted. Legal & Criminological Psychology, 20, 147-164.

  • Presentations

    Woolridge, L., Elliott, E., & Leach, A.-M. (2017, June). Unpacking proficiency to predict observers’ deception detection bias. Poster presented at the Canadian Psychological Association’s National Convention, Toronto, Ontario.

    Elliott, E., & Leach, A.-M. (2017, March). Do actions speak louder than words? An evaluation of deception cues according to proficiency and paradigm. Paper presented at the American Psychology-Law Society’s Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington.

    Woolridge, L., & Leach, A.-M. (2017, March). Dissonance and deception: Can misattributions of arousal facilitate the ability to detect deception? Poster presented at the American Psychology-Law Society’s Annual Conference, Seattle, Washington.

    Elliott, E., & Leach, A.-M. (2016, March). What do language barriers reveal about cues to deception? Paper presented at the American Psychology-Law Society’s Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.

    Arnhold, A., Akehurst, L., Figueiredo, I., & Leach, A.-M. (2015, August). Do foreigners sound like liars? Paper presented at the European Association of Psychology and Law, Nuremberg, Germany.

    Lawrence, H., Akehurst, L., & Leach, A.-M. (2015, June). Imposing cognitive load through gaze maintenance to detect deception in child witnesses. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Memory and Cognition’s Biennial Conference, Victoria, Canada.

    Solodukhin, E., & Leach, A.-M. (2015, June). The impact of language proficiency and cognitive load on lie detection and confidence. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Memory and Cognition’s Biennial Conference, Victoria, Canada.

    Leach, A.-M., Ammar, N., England, D. N., & Remigio, L. M. (2015, March). Lie detection and the niqab. Paper presented at the American Psychology-Law Society’s Annual Conference, San Diego, California.

    Solodukhin, E., & Leach, A.-M. (2015, March). Effects of language, paradigm, and cues on lie detection decisions. Paper presented at the American Psychology-Law Society’s Annual Conference, San Diego, California.