Alicia Nortje

About Alicia

Alicia Nortje is a psychological researcher turned data scientist. She has pivoted from her postgraduate academic path to a rewarding career in an unrelated industry, yet she maintains a strong interest in psychology.

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 a good example of not sticking to one path in life. There’s a lot of joy that can be found in the world.

Education & Degrees

• 2012-2018 – Ph.D. in Psychology, specialisation in Eyewitness Memory & Face Recognition at University of Cape Town, South Africa
• 2008-2011 – Masters in Research Psychology with coursework in Clinical Neuropsychology at University of Cape Town, South Africa
• 2007 – Honours in Psychology at University of Cape Town, South Africa
• 2004-2006 – BA in Psychological Counselling at University of South Africa, South Africa

Work Experience

• October 2023 – Present – An unrelated industry in data.
• April 2021 – June 2023 – Data scientist in an unrelated marketing company.
• 2014 – 2018 – The South African representative for the European Association of Psychology and Law, Student Society (EAPL-S)
• 2014-2016 – Communications Secretary for the committee for Division 10, Psychology and Law, of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP)
• 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.

First- and Second-Author Publications

• Nortje, A. (2017). Unit 11: Who cares? Writing up and disseminating your findings. In Applied research (pp. 285–316). EDGE Learning Media.
• Nortje, A. (2018). The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker: Investigating facial recognition for multiple-perpetrator crimes [PhD thesis, University of Cape Town]. Open UCT. https://open.uct.ac.za/items/2a0f3761-2759-4a38-ad02-49caa85b674c
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631204200314
• Nortje, A., & Tredoux, C. G. (2019). How good are we at detecting deception? A review of current techniques and theories. South Africa Journal of Psychology, 49(4), 491–504. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246318822953
• 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., & Vredeveldt, A. (2020). Eyewitness identification of multiple perpetrators. South African Journal of Criminal Justice, 33(2), 348–381.
• 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.
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3705
• 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., 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.
• 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. 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, 17, 713–741. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-020-09432-z
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3092
• 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), 189–197. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000113
• 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. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103266