MIKO M. WILFORD
Associate Professor
I am a tenured Associate Professor at Iowa State University. I am interested in applying what we know about social-cognitive phenomena to the improvement of real world procedures, particularly law and education. To this end, I am the P.I. of the Psycho-Legal Experiments and Applications (PLEA) Lab, and my most significant ongoing project (funded by an NSF CAREER grant) is the development of computer-simulation software with which to study plea decision-making. This software can be customized at researcher.pleajustice.org.
TEACHING
Psychology & Law (Spring 2025 & Spring 2026)
Advanced Cognition (Fall 2025)
CURRENT PROJECTS
Programs of Study
PLEA DECISION-MAKING
What leads an innocent person to plead guilty?
EYEWITNESS MEMORY
How do well-intentioned witnesses contribute to wrongful convictions?
TASK-SWITCHING
A dark side to interpolated testing?
LECTURER FLUENCY
How do "good" lecturers impact student learning?
Selected Publications
Click the "CV" header to download my CV!
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CRIMINOLOGY
DiFava, R. J., Bettens, T., Wilford, M. M., & Redlich, A. D. (2024). Confession evidence results in more true and false guilty pleas than eyewitness evidence. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 20, 1253-1267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-023-09577-7
PSYCHOLOGY, CRIME AND LAW
Wilford, M. M., & Bornstein, B. H. (2023). The disappearing trial: How social scientists can help save the jury from extinction. Psychology, Crime and Law, 29(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2021.1984482
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: APPLIED
Wilford, M. M., Zimmerman, D., Yan, S., & Sutherland, K. T. (2021). Innocence in the shadow of COVID-19: Plea decision making during a pandemic [Psychological Factors in Responding to COVID-19 Special Issue]. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 27(4), 739-750. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3724
LAW AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Wilford, M. M., Sutherland, K. T., Gonzales, J. E., & Rabinovich, M. (2021). Guilt status influences plea outcomes beyond the shadow-of-the-trial in an interactive simulation of legal procedures. Law and Human Behavior, 45(4), 271-286. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000450
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Wilford, M. M., Wells, G. L., & Frazier, A. (2021). Plea-bargaining law: The impact of innocence, trial penalty, and conviction probability on plea outcomes. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 46(3), 554-575. https://www.doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09564-y
APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Wilford, M. M., Kurpad, N., Platt, M.* & Weinstein-Jones, Y. (2020). Lecturer fluency can impact students' judgments of learning and actual learning performance. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 34(6), 1444-1456. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3724
LAW AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Smith, A. M., Wilford, M. M., Wells, G. L., & Quigley-McBride, A. (2019). Mistaken eyewitness identification rates increase when either witnessing or testing conditions get worse. Law and Human Behavior. 43(4). https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000334
PSYCHOLOGY, PUBLIC POLICY, AND LAW
Wilford, M. M., & Redlich, A. D. (2018). Deciphering the guilty plea: Where research can inform policy [Introduction to the special section on Guilty Pleas]. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 24(2), 145-146. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000169
PSYCHOLOGY, PUBLIC POLICY AND LAW
Wilford, M. M., & Wells, G. L. (2018). Bluffed by the dealer: Distinguishing false pleas from false confessions [Special section on Guilty Pleas]. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 24(2), 158-170. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000165
PSYCHOLOGY, CRIME AND LAW
Wilford, M. M., Van Horn, M. C.,* Penrod, S. D., & Greathouse, S. M. (2018). Not separate but equal? The impact of multiple-defendant trials on juror decision-making. Psychology, Crime and Law, 24(1), 14-37. https://www.doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2017.1351969
PSYCHOLOGY, PUBLIC POLICY, AND LAW
Redlich, A. D., Wilford, M. M., & Bushway, S. (2017). Understanding guilty pleas through the lens of social science [Special anniversary issue]. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 23(4), 458-471. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000142
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY: APPLIED
Wilford, M. M., Chan, J. C. K., & Tuhn, S. J.* (2014). Retrieval enhances eyewitness suggestibility to misinformation in free and cued recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 28(1), 81-93. https://www.doi.org/10.1037/xap0000001
PSYCHONOMIC BULLETIN AND REVIEW
Carpenter, S. K., Wilford, M. M., Kornell, N., & Mullaney, K. M. (2013). Appearances can be deceiving: Instructor fluency increases perception of learning without increasing actual learning. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 20, 1350-1356. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-013-0442-z
JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN MEMORY AND COGNITION
Wells, G. L., Wilford, M. M., & Smalarz, L. (2013). Forensic science testing: The forensic filler-control method for controlling contextual bias, estimating error rates, and calibrating analysts' reports. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 2(1), 53-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2013.01.004
JOURNAL OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE
Chan, J. C. K., Wilford, M. M., & Hughes, K. L.* (2012). Retrieval can increase or decrease suggestibility depending on how memory is tested: The importance of source complexity. Journal of Memory and Language, 67(1), 78-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2012.02.006
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Wilford, M. M., & Wells, G. L. (2010). Does facial processing prioritize change detection? Change-blindness illustrates costs and benefits of holistic processing. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1611-1615. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610385952
EDUCATION
PH.D., IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
August 2012 - July 2014
I have a Ph.D. in Social Psychology, and I was co-advised by Dr. Gary L. Wells (in the Social Psychology program) and Dr. Jason C. K. Chan (in the Cognitive Psychology program). I was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. My dissertation was entitled, "Bluffed by the dealer: Distinguishing false pleas from false confessions".
M.A., IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
August 2009Â - May 2012
I have a Master's degree in Psychology and I was co-advised by Dr. Gary L. Wells (in the Social Psychology program) and Dr. Jason C. K. Chan (in the Cognitive Psychology program). I was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. My thesis was entitled, "Let's make a deal: Exploring plea acceptance rates in the guilty and the innocent".
B.S. & B.A., IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
August 2005 - May 2009
I have a B.S. is in Psychology and a B.A. in Political Science. I also earned a Minor in Applied Statistics and graduated Magna Cum Laude. IÂ completed an Honors thesis under the advisement of Michelle L. Stock and Meg Gerrard entitled, "Changing binge-drinking cognitions: The impact of mode of processing, comparison targets and past behavior".
"It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer"