Overview

Professor of Cognitive Psychology in the School of Psychology. My interests are broadly in the area of Learning, Memory and Cognition, in combination with Computational Modelling. I'm particularly interested in comparisons between humans and other species that attempt to identify common learning processes in each, and actively attempt to transfer research paradigms from infra-human to human and vice-versa to generate data that supports these comparisons. Recent projects I've been involved in include work on Peak-Shift (which reflects my interest in how automatic, associative processes can influence decision making), Categorisation in humans and pigeons, Sequence Learning and modelling of same using the SRN and its variants, the Perruchet Effect and Human Pavlovian Coditioning, Face Perception (particularly inversion effects), Perceptual Learning (how experience with stimuli can lead to expertise in discriminating between them) and Judgements of Recency and Frequency. Perhaps the main area I'm focussing on at the moment concerns how Cognitive Control interfaces with Associative Learning (as part of CCAL), and here I'm particularly interested in how Automaticity develops. I also work as part of the CRITICAL group on how inhibition training can be applied to a variety of impulse disorders such as gambling and over-eating. If I had to identify a theme that unifies my work at the moment, it would be that our behaviour can best be described as some synthesis of rule-based symbolic action and associatively-based experience-driven reaction. I perform experiments that seek to dissociate these processes, and construct computational models that attempt to combine them in order to predict the results of the experiments.

Qualifications

My post-school education was all at King's College, Cambridge in the UK. Here I studied Theoretical Physics as part of the Natural Sciences Tripos, then Psychology at Undergraduate level, before taking a PhD under the supervision of Stephen Monsell (co-supervised by Nick Mackintosh) in the Department of Experimental Psychology (my thesis title was Association and Representation). I'm a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the Eastern Psychological Association (USA) and the British Psychological Society, and a member of the Experimental Psychology Society, the Psychonomic Society and the Cognitive Science society.

Career

Post-PhD I became a research Fellow at King's College in Cambridge. I then spent two years as a Lecturer at Warwick University, returned to Cambridge as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer (and Fellow and Tutor at Emmanuel College) then arrived at Exeter to take the Chair in Cognitive Psychology. Whilst at Exeter I've served as Academic Lead for Animal Behaviour, Deputy Head of School and Head of School for Psychology, and am currently Group Lead for Cognition.

Research group links

• Animal Behaviour
• Cognition

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Research

Research interests

 Associative Learning

Perceptual Learning

Pavlovian Conditioning in Humans and Other Animals

Inhibition Training

Dual Process Theories of Learning and Cognition

Research projects

 Investigating dual process theories of learning using electrodermal conditioning in humans

Using mindfulness to extinguish conditioned fear

Application of tDCS to the control of perceptual learning and its relation to face recognition

Using tDCS in conjunction with inhibition training to address gambling and alcohol disorders

Computational modelling of the interaction between cognitive contyrol and associative learning

Research networks

Cognition

Animal Behaviour

Centre for Research into Animal Behaviour (CRAB)

Centre for Cognitive Control and Associative Learning (CCAL)

Centre for Research into Inhibition Training, Impulse Control and Associative Learning (CRITICAL)

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External Engagement and Impact

Awards and distinctions

Fellow of the British Psychological Society 2012

Fellow of the EPA 2012

Editorial responsibilities

Editorial board member J Exp Psy: Anim Behav Processes

Member of the ESRC Peer Review College

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Teaching

I take the view that someone who's expertise is in the area of learning and memory had better be applying it to their teaching. I try to do this, and currently teach a course, The Associative Mind, that examines conventional knowledge about learning and memory from the standpoint of someone who adopts the view that symbolic and associative processes are at work in human mental life. It tries to be more than a series of lectures, incorporating demonstrations, interactive experiments, dialogue and student presentations in a free-format seminar style. The other course I teach, Animal Cognition (as part of Biological Psychology), is based on the more conventional lecture format, but differs from many other courses in the emphasis it places on comparisons between standard Comparative research and current Human Cognitive Psychology. I also teach a course on computational modelling for the Psychological Research Methods MSc.

Modules

2023/24

• PSY2304 - Biological Basis of Behaviour
• PSY3417 - The Associative Mind

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Office Hours:

Office Hours for Term 1 in 2017/18 are:

• Mondays   13:00-14:00
• Thursdays 14:30-15:30

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