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Dr Lara Frumkin

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Head of Department
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Psychology & Counselling
  • Psychology
  • lara.frumkin

Professional biography

I started at The Open University in January 2018 as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology.  I am a chartered psychologist, fellow of the Higher Education Academy, associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and international affiliate of the American Psychological Association. Before coming to the OU, I worked in government and non-profit as well as in academia.  After receiving my qualifications in the USA (BS, MA, PhD in psychology) I worked at the American Psychological Association. There my work centred around policy and informing the public about psychological research and practice.  I then worked at the US Department of Justice linking psychology to relevant aspects of justice, national security and crime. Since moving to the UK in 2003, I have worked at Middlesex University and the Institute of Education.  Most recently I was programme leader for the BSc forensic psychology at the University of East London. I am a community and social psychologist by background and apply this to criminal psychology and cross-cultural interactions.

Research interests

My research is centred around applying psychological principles to law enforcement and security services.  Within that there are a number of different strands to my work.  One programme of research is in detecting deception. Here I assess non-verbal behaviours to see how they may be indicators of those who are engaging in nefarious activities. Another thread of my work looks at the impact of extralegal factors on case outcome. I have run a series of studies to determine whether accent, race, and other seemingly irrelevant factors impact perceptions of witnesses in courtrooms.  Also in the courtroom I have studied how lawyers prepare and interact with clients with mental health difficulties. A third aspect of my research is looking at community responses to terrorism and extremism.  My investigations into how people feel about extremism are conducted by having people think about those who are different to themselves within their community.  I have also looked at how people catastrophise, prepare and think about a terrorist attack affecting them. Most recently, I have started to look at the role of human interaction on cybersecurity.

Publications

Proven and not proven: A potential alternative to the current Scottish verdict system (2022-07-19)
Curley, Lee John; Munro, James; Turner, Jim; Frumkin, Lara A.; Jackson, Elaine and Lages, Martin
Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 40(3) (pp. 452-466)

Verdict spotting: Investigating the effects of juror bias, evidence anchors, and verdict system in jurors (2022)
Curley, Lee; Murray, Jennifer; MacLean, Rory; Munro, James; Lages, Martin; Frumkin, Lara; Laybourn, Phyllis and Brown, David
Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 29(3) (pp. 323-344)

Digital detectives: websleuthing reduces eyewitness identification accuracy in police lineups (2021-04)
Elphick, Camilla; Philpot, Richard; Zhang, Min; Stuart, Avelie; Pike, Graham; Strathie, Ailsa; Havard, Catriona; Walkington, Zoe; Frumkin, Lara; Levine, Mark; Price, Blaine; Bandara, Arosha and Nuseibeh, Bashar
Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 640513

Building trust in digital policing: a scoping review of community policing apps (2021)
Elphick, Camilla; Philpot, Richard; Zhang, Min; Stuart, Avelie; Walkington, Zoe; Frumkin, Lara; Pike, Graham; Gardner, Kelly; Lacey, Mark; Levine, Mark; Price, Blaine; Bandara, Arosha and Nuseibeh, Bashar
Police Practice and Research, 22(5) (1469 -1491)

Informing Reform: The views of legal professionals on the unique aspects of Scottish Law (2021)
Curley, Lee; Munro, James; Frumkin, Lara and Turner, Jim
Medicine, Science and the Law, 61(4) (pp. 256-265)

The impact of different British accents on perceptions of eyewitness statements (2020-05-06)
Frumkin, Lara A. and Thompson, Amanda
Journal of Language and Discrimination, 4(1)

Not all eyewitnesses are equal: Accent status, race and age interact to influence evaluations of testimony (2020)
Frumkin, Lara A. and Stone, Anna
Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 18(2) (pp. 123-145)

Human Factors in security: User-centred and socio-technical perspectives (2016)
Stedmon, Alex; Richards, Dale; Frumkin, Lara and Fussey, Peter
Security Journal, 29(1) (pp. 1-4)

Deception in context: coding nonverbal cues, situational variables and risk of detection (2013-10)
Zhang, Ke; Frumkin, Lara A.; Stedmon, Alex and Lawson, Glyn
Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 28(2) (pp. 150-161)

Young children's cognitive achievement: home learning environment, language and ethnic background (2013-05)
Frumkin, Lara
Journal of Early Childhood Research, 11(3) (pp. 222-235)

Cyberbullying experiences on-the-go: when social media can become distressing (2013)
Görzig, Anke and Frumkin, Lara
Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 7(1)

Exploratory investigation of drivers of attainment in ethnic minority adult learners (2013)
Frumkin, Lara A. and Koutsoubou, Maria
Journal of Further and Higher Education, 37(2) (pp. 147-162)

The effects of self-awareness on body movement indicators of the intention to deceive (2013)
Lawson, Glyn; Stedmon, Alex W.; Zhang, Ke; Eubanks, Dawn L. and Frumkin, Lara A.
Applied Ergonomics, 44(5) (pp. 687-693)

Influences of accent and ethnic background on perceptions of eyewitness testimony (2007)
Frumkin, Lara
Psychology, Crime & Law, 13(3) (pp. 317-331)

Student perceptions of lecturer classroom communication style (2007)
Frumkin, L. A. and Murphy, A
European Journal of Social Sciences, 5(3) (pp. 45-60)

Postgraduate preferences: a study of factors contributing to programme satisfaction amongst masters students (2007)
Frumkin, Lara A.; Milankovic-Atkinson, Maya and Sadler, Chris
New Horizons in Education, 55(2) (pp. 37-54)

Does increasing communication through visual learning environments enhance student perceptions of lecturers? (2006)
Frumkin, Lara
International Education Journal, 7(5) (pp. 688-698)

Collaborative approaches to countering terrorism (2023-02-21)
Frumkin, Lara A. and Ford, Paul
In: Frumkin, Lara A.; Morrison, John F. and Silke, Andrew eds. A Research Agenda for Terrorism Studies. Elgar Research Agendas (pp. 211-224)
ISBN : 9781789909098 | Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd | Published : Cheltenham, UK

Emerging Threats for the Human Element and Countermeasures in Current Cyber Security Landscape (2018)
Benson, Vladlena; McAlaney, John and Frumkin, Lara
In: McAlaney, John; Frumkin, Lara A. and Benson, Vladlena eds. Psychological and Behavioral Examinations in Cyber Security (pp. 266-271)
Publisher : IGI Global

Non-verbal cues to deception and their relationship to terrorism (2015)
Eubanks, D. L.; Zhang, K. and Frumkin, L.
In: Stedmon, A. and Lawson, G. eds. Hostile intent and counter terrorism: Human factors theory and application (pp. 75-92)
Publisher : Ashgate

A Research Agenda for Terrorism Studies (2023-02-21)
Silke, Andrew; Frumkin, Lara A. and Morrison, John F.
Frumkin, Lara; Morrison, John F. and Silke, Andrew eds.
ISBN : 9781789909098 | Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishers

Psychological and Behavioral Examinations in Cyber Security (2018)
McAlaney, J.; Frumkin, L. and Benson, V. eds.
ISBN : 9781522540533 | Publisher : IGI Global | Published : Hershey, USA

Attitudes towards Online Community Support Initiatives during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey in the UK (2022-05-10)
Zhang, Min; Elphick, Camilla; Philpot, Richard; Walkington, Zoe; Frumkin, Lara; Price, Blaine; Pike, Graham; Levine, Mark; Nuseibeh, Bashar and Bandara, Arosha
In : CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (1-7 May 2022)

Towards Citizen Forensics: Improving Citizen-Police Collaboration (2020)
Bandara, Arosha; Zhang, Min; Price, Blaine; Pike, Graham; Elphick, Camilla; Walkington, Zoe; Frumkin, Lara; Philpot, Richard; Levine, Mark; Stuart, Avelie and Nuseibeh, Bashar
In : Workshop on Crime and/or Punishment: Joining the Dots between Crime, Legality and HCI, Extended Abstracts of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (25-30 Apr 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA)

Designing Technologies for Community Policing (2020)
Zhang, Min; Bandara, Arosha; Price, Blaine; Pike, Graham; Walkington, Zoe; Elphick, Camilla; Frumkin, Lara; Philpot, Richard; Levine, Mark; Stuart, Avelie and Nuseibeh, Bashar
In : Extended Abstracts of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Late Breaking Work) (25-30 Apr 2020, Honolulu, HI, USA) (pp. 1-9)

Telling the difference between deceiving and truth telling: An experiment in a public space (2013)
Ke Zhang, ; Eubanks, Dawn L.; Frumkin, Lara A.; Saikayasit, Rose; Stedmon, Alex W. and Lawson, Glyn
In : 10th IEEE International Conference and Workshops on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition (FG) (22-26 Apr 2013, Shanghai, China) (pp. 1-8)

Deception and self-awareness (2011-07)
Lawson, Glyn; Stedmon, Alex; Zhang, Chloe; Eubanks, Dawn and Frumkin, Lara
In : 9th International Conference, EPCE 2011 (9-14 Jul 2011, Orlando, FL, USA,) (pp. 414-423)

Designing Multimedia for Differences: e-Lecturer, e-Tutor, and e-Student Perspectives (2005-07-04)
Benson, Vladlena; Frumkin, Lara and Murphy, Alan
In : Third International Conference on Information Technology and Applications (ICITA'05) (4-7 Jul 2005) (pp. 159-164)

Investigating computer-supported cooperative learning: Applications for flexible learning environments (2005)
Dafoulas, George; Frumkin, Lara; Mimirinis, Mike and Murphy, Alan
In : The 3rd ACS/IEEE International Conference onComputer Systems and Applications (2005, Cairo) (pp. 847-852)

From e-learning to b-learning: How students use e-learning material in a blended learning environment (2004)
Frumkin, Lara; Mimirinis, Mike; Dimitrova, Maia and Murphy, Alan
In : E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (2004) (pp. 1870-1875)

Factors influencing learning behaviour of diverse distance students (2004)
Frumkin, Lara, A; Dimitrova, Maia; Mimirinis, Mike and Murphy, Alan
In : Blue skies and pragmatism: learning technologies for the next decade. Research proceedings of the 11th Association for Learning Technology Conference (ALT-C) (14-16 Sep 2004, University of Exeter)

Drivers and Challenges in Raising the Achievement of Pupils from Bangladeshi, Somali and Turkish Backgrounds (2010-03)
Frumkin, Lara; Strand, Steve; de Coulon, Augustin; Meschi, Elena; Vorhaus, John; Ivins, Claire; Small, Lauren; Sood, Amrita; Gervais, Marie-Claude and Rehman, Hamid
DSCF, London.

Learning literacy together: the impact and effectiveness of family literacy on parents, children, families and schools (2009-10)
Swain, Jon; Welby, Sian; Brooks, Greg; Bosley, Sara; Frumkin, Lara; Fairfax-Cholmeley, Karen; Perez, Alegria and Cara, Olga
Learning and Skills Improvement Service

Adult numeracy: a review of research (2009)
Carpentieri, J.D.; Lister, Jenny and Frumkin, Lara
National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy, London.

Your money matters evaluation: money management for older people (2009)
Brazier, Laura; Frumkin, Lara; Litster, Jenny and Ward, Anne
Help the Aged

Improving further education provision for learners from minority ethnic groups: a review of the evidence (2008)
Quality Improvement Agency, and Frumkin, Lara
Quality Improvement Agency