Overview
Role within department: Anna is the postdoctoral research associate to Dr Miriam Koschate-Reis, contributing to an interdisciplinary research project with the PsyID Lab (Psychological Identity in a Digital World). Here, research is looking to detect relevant psychological identities from naturally occurring digital communication data (e.g., forum posts, blogs, e-mails) through linguistic analysis. Examining how individuals develop new psychological identities (e.g., transitioning into parenthood) and leave identities behind (e.g., addict), and the consequences of such transitions for mental health (e.g., post-natal depression, addiction recovery) and security (e.g., drugs trade). Working in collaboration with industry partners in the fields of security and healthcare to explore applications in data analytics, diagnostic and monitoring support, and software engineering. Anna's role will be to support Dr. Koschate-Reis in the advancing of software engineering from a social science perspective.
The project is supported by an EPSRC Innovation Fellowship - Psychological Identity in a Digital World: Detecting and Understanding Digital Traces of our Psychological Self and EPSRC Platform Grant SAUSE: Secure, Adaptive, Usable Software Engineering (ukri.org)
Interests: Anna’s previous postdocs worked with families to understand individual factors in child development (e.g., communicative contingency between mother and infant (NBRUH, Nottingham), biological and environmental differences affecting child brain injury recovery (ADAPT-Genetics)). This research will be an opportunity to explore the social link in the bio-psych-social model; and how our online communication language reflects psychological identity and identity changes, also bringing in her earlier experience from the field of speech and language (UCL) and the IT industry (IBM).
For more information see our blog: PsyID Lab
Qualifications
BSc (Hons) Speech Sciences, University College London, 2001; MRes Cognition & Computational Neuroscience, University of Birmingham, 2004; PhD, University of Birmingham, 2008
Research group links
Research
Research interests
Anna’s first postdoc studied the relationship between maternal self-efficacy and the communicative contingency between the mother and her recently diagnosed deaf baby, and so its impact on the development of that child (communicative contingency is known to improve developmental progress). The project investigated the impact of a change in self-efficacy on this through an intervention to help improve a mother’s view of her abilities. During this project, Anna worked alongside Dr Lam-Cassettari, Western Sydney University.
Anna is interested in generalising this concept and finding out more about the impact of self-belief in a person in recovery, e.g., from brain injury, and, extending it to the support groups connected. The interactions between environment and biology, based on the bio-psych-social model, and how we might measure and change to improve circumstances she finds interesting. Her role working on the ADAPT-Genetics study, gave an opportunity to explore these themes further. Now, Anna will explore how change may be reflected in online communications (e.g., identities in entering motherhood or addiction recovery).
Research projects
ADAPT-Genetics UK (Jan 2019-2021)
Postdoctoral research for Professor Anna Adlam, working on the UK arm of the international ADAPT-Genetics study, in collaboration with Professor Brad Kurowski, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, USA. The study looks at genetic and environmental influences of severe paediatric brain injury, and the relationship between them. The results will be used to guide future treatments tailored to the individual (e.g., immediately following the injury, and for later rehabilitative interventions), and increase knowledge in the field of neurorecovery. Her work required putting forward the study NHS ethics review and coordinating the recruitment across ten UK children's hospitals; working with NHS medical professionals, R&D management and families previously involved in the study; gathering saliva samples for genetic analysis, and parental questionnaires.
Research Group Links: CEDAR Child and Adolescent Neuropsychology (CAN); Follow us on twitter: @CANexeter & @UK-TOPS
ADAPT-Genetics study, CEDAR Child and Adolescent Neuropsychology (CAN)
Publications
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Key publications
James DM, Wadnerkar MB, Lam-Cassettari C, Kang S, Telling AL (2012). Thin slice sampling of video footage for mother/child interaction: Application to single cases.
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment,
34(3), 351-360.
Abstract:
Thin slice sampling of video footage for mother/child interaction: Application to single cases
The purpose was to test the reliability of short samples of parent/child interaction for use in single-subject research. Four variable pairs of mother/child behaviour were coded for seven mother/child play sessions. Each session lasted 20 min and 18 min of the session was behaviourally coded using frame-by-frame analysis. The co-occurrence of the mother/child behaviours within a given time window was computed and an odds ratio was calculated for the cooccurrence of the targeted behaviours. The play session was divided into shorter segments (3, 6 and 9 min) and odds ratios of the variable pairs from the shorter segments were compared to the odds ratios from the entire session. Segments of 3 and 6 min did not yield the same pattern of results as the entire session. In single-subject research, evidence of the reliability of the time segment for behavioural coding should be reported in the methods section of original research manuscripts. © the Author(s) 2012.
Abstract.
Telling AL, Meyer AS, Humphreys GW (2010). Distracted by relatives: Effects of frontal lobe damage on semantic distraction.
Brain and Cognition,
73(3), 203-214.
Abstract:
Distracted by relatives: Effects of frontal lobe damage on semantic distraction
When young adults carry out visual search, distractors that are semantically related, rather than unrelated, to targets can disrupt target selection (see Belke, Humphreys, Watson, Meyer, & Telling, 2008; Moores, Laiti, & Chelazzi, 2003). This effect is apparent on the first eye movements in search, suggesting that attention is sometimes captured by related distractors. Here we assessed effects of semantically related distractors on search in patients with frontal-lobe lesions and compared them to the effects in age-matched controls. Compared with the controls, the patients were less likely to make a first saccade to the target and they were more likely to saccade to distractors (whether related or unrelated to the target). This suggests a deficit in a first stage of selecting a potential target for attention. In addition, the patients made more errors by responding to semantically related distractors on target-absent trials. This indicates a problem at a second stage of target verification, after items have been attended. The data suggest that frontal lobe damage disrupts both the ability to use peripheral information to guide attention, and the ability to keep separate the target of search from the related items, on occasions when related items achieve selection. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Abstract.
Telling AL, Kumar S, Meyer AS, Humphreys GW (2010). Electrophysiological evidence of semantic interference in visual search.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,
22(10), 2212-2225.
Abstract:
Electrophysiological evidence of semantic interference in visual search
Visual evoked responses were monitored while participants searched for a target (e.g. bird) in a four-object display that could include a semantically related distractor (e.g. fish). The occurrence of both the target and the semantically related distractor modulated the N2pc response to the search display: the N2pc amplitude was more pronounced when the target and the distractor appeared in the same visual field, and it was less pronounced when the target and the distractor were in opposite fields, relative towhen the distractor was absent. Earlier components (P1,N1) did not show any differences in activity across the different distractor conditions. The data suggest that semantic distractors influence early stages of selecting stimuli in multielement displays. © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Abstract.
Belke E, Humphreys GW, Watson DG, Meyer AS, Telling AL (2008). Top-down effects of semantic knowledge in visual search are modulated by cognitive but not perceptual load.
Perception and Psychophysics,
70(8), 1444-1458.
Abstract:
Top-down effects of semantic knowledge in visual search are modulated by cognitive but not perceptual load
Moores, Laiti, and Chelazzi (2003) found semantic interference from associate competitors during visual object search, demonstrating the existence of top-down semantic influences on the deployment of attention to objects. We examined whether effects of semantically related competitors (same-category members or associates) interacted with the effects of perceptual or cognitive load. We failed to find any interaction between competitor effects and perceptual load. However, the competitor effects increased significantly when participants were asked to retain one or five digits in memory throughout the search task. Analyses of eye movements and viewing times showed that a cognitive load did not affect the initial allocation of attention but rather the time it took participants to accept or reject an object as the target. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of conceptual short-term memory and visual attention. Copyright 2008 Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Abstract.
Oyebode JR, Telling AL, Hardy RM, Austin J (2007). Awareness of memory functioning in early Alzheimer's disease: Lessons from a comparison with healthy older people and young adults.
AGING & MENTAL HEALTH,
11(6), 761-767.
Author URL.
Meyer AS, Belke E, Telling AL, Humphreys GW (2007). Early activation of object names in visual search.
Psychonomic Bulletin and Review,
14(4), 710-716.
Abstract:
Early activation of object names in visual search
In a visual search experiment, participants had to decide whether or not a target object was present in a four-object search array. One of these objects could be a semantically related competitor (e.g. shirt for the target trousers) or a conceptually unrelated object with the same name as the target - for example, bat (baseball) for the target bat (animal). In the control condition, the related competitor was replaced by an unrelated object. The participants' response latencies and eye movements demonstrated that the two types of related competitors had similar effects: Competitors attracted the participants' visual attention and thereby delayed positive and negative decisions. The results imply that semantic and name information associated with the objects becomes rapidly available and affects the allocation of visual attention. Copyright 2007 Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Abstract.
Publications by category
Journal articles
James DM, Wadnerkar MB, Lam-Cassettari C, Kang S, Telling AL (2012). Thin slice sampling of video footage for mother/child interaction: Application to single cases.
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment,
34(3), 351-360.
Abstract:
Thin slice sampling of video footage for mother/child interaction: Application to single cases
The purpose was to test the reliability of short samples of parent/child interaction for use in single-subject research. Four variable pairs of mother/child behaviour were coded for seven mother/child play sessions. Each session lasted 20 min and 18 min of the session was behaviourally coded using frame-by-frame analysis. The co-occurrence of the mother/child behaviours within a given time window was computed and an odds ratio was calculated for the cooccurrence of the targeted behaviours. The play session was divided into shorter segments (3, 6 and 9 min) and odds ratios of the variable pairs from the shorter segments were compared to the odds ratios from the entire session. Segments of 3 and 6 min did not yield the same pattern of results as the entire session. In single-subject research, evidence of the reliability of the time segment for behavioural coding should be reported in the methods section of original research manuscripts. © the Author(s) 2012.
Abstract.
Telling AL, Meyer AS, Humphreys GW (2010). Distracted by relatives: Effects of frontal lobe damage on semantic distraction.
Brain and Cognition,
73(3), 203-214.
Abstract:
Distracted by relatives: Effects of frontal lobe damage on semantic distraction
When young adults carry out visual search, distractors that are semantically related, rather than unrelated, to targets can disrupt target selection (see Belke, Humphreys, Watson, Meyer, & Telling, 2008; Moores, Laiti, & Chelazzi, 2003). This effect is apparent on the first eye movements in search, suggesting that attention is sometimes captured by related distractors. Here we assessed effects of semantically related distractors on search in patients with frontal-lobe lesions and compared them to the effects in age-matched controls. Compared with the controls, the patients were less likely to make a first saccade to the target and they were more likely to saccade to distractors (whether related or unrelated to the target). This suggests a deficit in a first stage of selecting a potential target for attention. In addition, the patients made more errors by responding to semantically related distractors on target-absent trials. This indicates a problem at a second stage of target verification, after items have been attended. The data suggest that frontal lobe damage disrupts both the ability to use peripheral information to guide attention, and the ability to keep separate the target of search from the related items, on occasions when related items achieve selection. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Abstract.
Telling AL, Kumar S, Meyer AS, Humphreys GW (2010). Electrophysiological evidence of semantic interference in visual search.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,
22(10), 2212-2225.
Abstract:
Electrophysiological evidence of semantic interference in visual search
Visual evoked responses were monitored while participants searched for a target (e.g. bird) in a four-object display that could include a semantically related distractor (e.g. fish). The occurrence of both the target and the semantically related distractor modulated the N2pc response to the search display: the N2pc amplitude was more pronounced when the target and the distractor appeared in the same visual field, and it was less pronounced when the target and the distractor were in opposite fields, relative towhen the distractor was absent. Earlier components (P1,N1) did not show any differences in activity across the different distractor conditions. The data suggest that semantic distractors influence early stages of selecting stimuli in multielement displays. © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Abstract.
Belke E, Humphreys GW, Watson DG, Meyer AS, Telling AL (2008). Top-down effects of semantic knowledge in visual search are modulated by cognitive but not perceptual load.
Perception and Psychophysics,
70(8), 1444-1458.
Abstract:
Top-down effects of semantic knowledge in visual search are modulated by cognitive but not perceptual load
Moores, Laiti, and Chelazzi (2003) found semantic interference from associate competitors during visual object search, demonstrating the existence of top-down semantic influences on the deployment of attention to objects. We examined whether effects of semantically related competitors (same-category members or associates) interacted with the effects of perceptual or cognitive load. We failed to find any interaction between competitor effects and perceptual load. However, the competitor effects increased significantly when participants were asked to retain one or five digits in memory throughout the search task. Analyses of eye movements and viewing times showed that a cognitive load did not affect the initial allocation of attention but rather the time it took participants to accept or reject an object as the target. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of conceptual short-term memory and visual attention. Copyright 2008 Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Abstract.
Oyebode JR, Telling AL, Hardy RM, Austin J (2007). Awareness of memory functioning in early Alzheimer's disease: Lessons from a comparison with healthy older people and young adults.
AGING & MENTAL HEALTH,
11(6), 761-767.
Author URL.
Meyer AS, Belke E, Telling AL, Humphreys GW (2007). Early activation of object names in visual search.
Psychonomic Bulletin and Review,
14(4), 710-716.
Abstract:
Early activation of object names in visual search
In a visual search experiment, participants had to decide whether or not a target object was present in a four-object search array. One of these objects could be a semantically related competitor (e.g. shirt for the target trousers) or a conceptually unrelated object with the same name as the target - for example, bat (baseball) for the target bat (animal). In the control condition, the related competitor was replaced by an unrelated object. The participants' response latencies and eye movements demonstrated that the two types of related competitors had similar effects: Competitors attracted the participants' visual attention and thereby delayed positive and negative decisions. The results imply that semantic and name information associated with the objects becomes rapidly available and affects the allocation of visual attention. Copyright 2007 Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Abstract.
Publications by year
2019
Adlam A-LR, Roberts H, Telling AL, Morris K, Taylor J, Bell M, Wisniewski SR, Fabio A, Kurowski BG (2019). Genetic and environmental influences on recovery of severe paediatric brain injury: the UK study protocol.
Abstract:
Genetic and environmental influences on recovery of severe paediatric brain injury: the UK study protocol
Background and aims: There is substantial variation in recovery after pediatric traumatic brain injury (pTBI). Understanding the genetic and environmental factors influencing this variation, would allow optimization of treatments to reduce the profound negative societal and economic impact of pTBI. This study will examine the associations between genetic and environmental factors on global functioning and neurocognitive and behavioural functioning following severe pTBI.
Method: We will collect salivary DNA samples and measures of parenting and home environment from approximately 85 children in the U.K. who have participated in the international Approaches and Decisions in Acute Pediatric TBI Trial (ADAPT). The primary outcome will be global functioning assessed by the pediatric Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE) at 3-, 6-, and 12-months post-injury. Secondary outcomes will include an assessment of cognitive and behavioral functioning 12-months post-injury.
Results: an analytic approach that seeks to identify genes and variants associated with recovery that are over-represented (gene-enrichment) across response to injury and neurocognitive and behavioral reserve biologic processes will be used. Mixed model analyses will evaluate the association of genotypes with recovery after severe pTBI and to elucidate the association of environmental factors with recovery. How genetic and environmental factors and genetic and early clinical factors interact to influence recovery after severe pTBI will also be evaluated.
Conclusions: the study findings will help us to better understand what determines variation in recovery following pTBI, supporting the ability to provide accurate prognosis and develop novel precision treatments.
Abstract.
2012
James DM, Wadnerkar MB, Lam-Cassettari C, Kang S, Telling AL (2012). Thin slice sampling of video footage for mother/child interaction: Application to single cases.
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment,
34(3), 351-360.
Abstract:
Thin slice sampling of video footage for mother/child interaction: Application to single cases
The purpose was to test the reliability of short samples of parent/child interaction for use in single-subject research. Four variable pairs of mother/child behaviour were coded for seven mother/child play sessions. Each session lasted 20 min and 18 min of the session was behaviourally coded using frame-by-frame analysis. The co-occurrence of the mother/child behaviours within a given time window was computed and an odds ratio was calculated for the cooccurrence of the targeted behaviours. The play session was divided into shorter segments (3, 6 and 9 min) and odds ratios of the variable pairs from the shorter segments were compared to the odds ratios from the entire session. Segments of 3 and 6 min did not yield the same pattern of results as the entire session. In single-subject research, evidence of the reliability of the time segment for behavioural coding should be reported in the methods section of original research manuscripts. © the Author(s) 2012.
Abstract.
2010
Telling AL, Meyer AS, Humphreys GW (2010). Distracted by relatives: Effects of frontal lobe damage on semantic distraction.
Brain and Cognition,
73(3), 203-214.
Abstract:
Distracted by relatives: Effects of frontal lobe damage on semantic distraction
When young adults carry out visual search, distractors that are semantically related, rather than unrelated, to targets can disrupt target selection (see Belke, Humphreys, Watson, Meyer, & Telling, 2008; Moores, Laiti, & Chelazzi, 2003). This effect is apparent on the first eye movements in search, suggesting that attention is sometimes captured by related distractors. Here we assessed effects of semantically related distractors on search in patients with frontal-lobe lesions and compared them to the effects in age-matched controls. Compared with the controls, the patients were less likely to make a first saccade to the target and they were more likely to saccade to distractors (whether related or unrelated to the target). This suggests a deficit in a first stage of selecting a potential target for attention. In addition, the patients made more errors by responding to semantically related distractors on target-absent trials. This indicates a problem at a second stage of target verification, after items have been attended. The data suggest that frontal lobe damage disrupts both the ability to use peripheral information to guide attention, and the ability to keep separate the target of search from the related items, on occasions when related items achieve selection. © 2010 Elsevier Inc.
Abstract.
Telling AL, Kumar S, Meyer AS, Humphreys GW (2010). Electrophysiological evidence of semantic interference in visual search.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience,
22(10), 2212-2225.
Abstract:
Electrophysiological evidence of semantic interference in visual search
Visual evoked responses were monitored while participants searched for a target (e.g. bird) in a four-object display that could include a semantically related distractor (e.g. fish). The occurrence of both the target and the semantically related distractor modulated the N2pc response to the search display: the N2pc amplitude was more pronounced when the target and the distractor appeared in the same visual field, and it was less pronounced when the target and the distractor were in opposite fields, relative towhen the distractor was absent. Earlier components (P1,N1) did not show any differences in activity across the different distractor conditions. The data suggest that semantic distractors influence early stages of selecting stimuli in multielement displays. © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Abstract.
2008
Belke E, Humphreys GW, Watson DG, Meyer AS, Telling AL (2008). Top-down effects of semantic knowledge in visual search are modulated by cognitive but not perceptual load.
Perception and Psychophysics,
70(8), 1444-1458.
Abstract:
Top-down effects of semantic knowledge in visual search are modulated by cognitive but not perceptual load
Moores, Laiti, and Chelazzi (2003) found semantic interference from associate competitors during visual object search, demonstrating the existence of top-down semantic influences on the deployment of attention to objects. We examined whether effects of semantically related competitors (same-category members or associates) interacted with the effects of perceptual or cognitive load. We failed to find any interaction between competitor effects and perceptual load. However, the competitor effects increased significantly when participants were asked to retain one or five digits in memory throughout the search task. Analyses of eye movements and viewing times showed that a cognitive load did not affect the initial allocation of attention but rather the time it took participants to accept or reject an object as the target. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of conceptual short-term memory and visual attention. Copyright 2008 Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Abstract.
2007
Oyebode JR, Telling AL, Hardy RM, Austin J (2007). Awareness of memory functioning in early Alzheimer's disease: Lessons from a comparison with healthy older people and young adults.
AGING & MENTAL HEALTH,
11(6), 761-767.
Author URL.
Meyer AS, Belke E, Telling AL, Humphreys GW (2007). Early activation of object names in visual search.
Psychonomic Bulletin and Review,
14(4), 710-716.
Abstract:
Early activation of object names in visual search
In a visual search experiment, participants had to decide whether or not a target object was present in a four-object search array. One of these objects could be a semantically related competitor (e.g. shirt for the target trousers) or a conceptually unrelated object with the same name as the target - for example, bat (baseball) for the target bat (animal). In the control condition, the related competitor was replaced by an unrelated object. The participants' response latencies and eye movements demonstrated that the two types of related competitors had similar effects: Competitors attracted the participants' visual attention and thereby delayed positive and negative decisions. The results imply that semantic and name information associated with the objects becomes rapidly available and affects the allocation of visual attention. Copyright 2007 Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Abstract.
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