Psychology
Profile
Background
I graduated in the summer of 2009 with a B.A (Hons) in psychology from Edinburgh Napier University. I have been actively involved in research for the past three years. I have been a participant and a member of a research team in numerous studies that have involved visual attention including the investigation of the repeated viewing of visual evidence in the acquisition of ‘special knowledge’, children's eye movements at road crossings, adult eye movements and pedestrian behaviour and visual search and camouflage. I was granted £500 in 2008 to work as a research assistant Dr Hayley Ness (School of Health & Social Science, Edinburgh Napier University) in the study: Does repeated viewing of visual evidence lead to the acquisition of ‘special knowledge?’ The following year (2009) I worked as a research assistant to Dr Nicky Brace and Dr Graham Pike (Department of Psychology, Open University) in the study: ‘How well can we identify suspects?’ Both studies were presented at the SARMAC (Society of Applied Research in Memory & Cognition) conference in Kyoto, 25-31st July 2009.
I completed an MSc in Psychological Research Methods in August 2010 under the supervision of Dr Anne Hillstrom.
Teaching Responsibilities
I am a member of the project support team for the first year undergraduate psychology practical unit where I assist the main unit lecturer, support the students and mark assignments that are completed as part of the unit. I also give lectures on Cognitive Psychology to the Combined Honours students and I am a year one tutor. I will continue to carry out various teaching roles during my five years at the University of Portsmouth.
Research Interests
I am currently working on my PhD under the supervision of Dr Anne Hillstrom, Dr James Sauer and Dr Jenny Page.
My PhD research is investigating the role of various conditions when observing both criminal and non-criminal activity on reconstructed CCTV footage. This research aims demonstrate the limitations of our visual ability when observing such dynamic footage. It may also provide an insight into how observers try to comprehend a lot of detailed visual information in a small period of time and what aspects of CCTV footage capture attention. The research is important as technology continues to advance and our visual environment becomes larger and complex, we need to understand the visual differences under varying conditions. This may lead to implications in terms of both real-world perception and CCTV observations.
My other research interests include eye tracking, the effects of prior knowledge on visual attention and change blindness paradigms, which I continue to integrate into my research.
I am a member of The International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology (ICRFP).
Presentations and Posters
Graham, G. & Hillstrom, A. (2011). Is guidance of search through scenes based on expectation of likely target locations, scene layout or both? Abstract accepted to the European Conference on Eye Movements (ECEM). Marseille, France, August 21-25.