Alicia Nortje, Ph.D.

About Alicia

Dr. Alicia Nortje, Ph.D., is well trained in critical thinking and psychological research and is an excellent, in-depth researcher.

Her goal is to deliver research findings using everyday language and to encourage readers to question their thinking, beliefs, ideas, and behavior in an attempt to better understand why we do, think, and feel the way we do.

A Personal Message from Alicia

I’m passionate about turning numbers into stories that matter. Research and statistics are incredible tools—-they help us uncover insights hidden in data and make sense of the world around us. I’m especially fascinated by applied psychological research and how it connects theory to real-world impact. Here’s to exploring, understanding, and making informed decisions together!

Work Experience

• Data scientist, working in the corporate world.
• Postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cape Town.
• As a postgraduate student, she worked as a research assistant and collaborated on multiple international projects.
• Ran short workshops on programming experiments in E-Prime, and a starter course on programming in R.
• Served on the committee for Division 10, Psychology and Law, of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) from 2014-2016. Her role was Communications Secretary.
• The South African representative for the European Association of Psychology and Law, Student Society (EAPL-S) from 2014 – 2018.

First- and Second-Author Publications

• Tredoux, C. G., Fitzgerald, R. J., Allan, A., & Nortje, A. (2024). Identification parades in South Africa—Time for a change. South African Law Journal, 141(1), 84–111.
• Tredoux, C., & Nortje, A. (2023). What’s in a face? Introducing the special section on Face Science. South African Journal of Science, 119(3-4), 1–2.
• Tredoux, C., Megreya, A. M., Nortje, A., & Kempen, K. (2023). Changes in the own group bias across immediate and delayed recognition tasks. South African Journal of Science, 119(3-4), 1–7.
• Scott, K., Tredoux, C., & Nortje, A. (2023). Evaluating the utility of facial identification information: Accuracy versus precision. South African Journal of Science, 119(3-4), 1–9.
• Wittwer, T., Tredoux, C. G., Py, J., Nortje, A., Kempen, K., & Launay, C. (2022). Automatic recognition, elimination strategy and familiarity feeling: Cognitive processes predict accuracy from lineup identifications. Consciousness and Cognition, 98, 103266.
• Nortje, A., Tredoux, C. & Vredeveldt, A. (2020). Eyewitness identification of multiple perpetrators. South African Journal of Criminal Justice, 33(2), 348–381.
• Sporer, S. L., Tredoux, C. G., Vredeveldt, A., Kempen, K., & Nortje, A. (2020). Does exposure to facial composites damage eyewitness memory? A comprehensive review. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 34(5), 1166–1179.
• Tredoux, C. G., Sporer, S. L., Vredeveldt, A., Kempen, K., & Nortje, A. (2020). Does constructing a facial composite affect eyewitness memory? A Research Synthesis and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Experimental Criminology.
• Nortje, A. Tredoux, C. G., & Vredeveldt, A. (2017). How many faces can we remember? Why this matters when assessing eyewitnesses. In M. Bindemann & A. Megreya (Eds.), Face Processing: Systems, Disorders, and Cultural Disorders. NOVA Science Publishers.
• Nortje, A. & Tredoux, C. G. (2019). How good are we at detecting deception? A review of current techniques and theories. South African Journal of Psychology.
• Vredeveldt, A., Tredoux, C. G., Nortje, A , Kempen, K. & Puljevic, C. (2015). A field evaluation of the Eye-Closure Interview with witnesses of serious crimes. Law and Human Behaviour. 39(2), 189.
• Vredeveldt, A., Tredoux, C. G., Kempen, K., & Nortje, A. (2015). Eye remember what happened: Eye-closure improves recall of events but not face recognition. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 29(2), 169-180.
• Nortje, A. & Tredoux, C. (2012). Red, Green, Blue, Red, Argh! A missing shift in processing: the Stroop task does not affect facial recognition. South African Journal of Psychology, 42(3), 423-433.