Teaching Fellow
- About
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- School/Department
- School of Psychology
Biography
I am currently a Teaching Fellow here in the School of Psychology at the University of Aberdeen. Previously, I was based at the University of Dundee where I conducted my PhD research in addition to working as Graduate Tutor and Psychology Support Specialist. My PhD research investigated word production in cross-dialectal communication. I developed a new experimental paradigm in which I studied how conversation partners from different dialectal backgrounds can communicate successfully with one another, focusing in particular on the lexical level. The target population for my PhD research was Scottish dialect users and speakers of so-called 'standard' English, although I am also interested in Norwegian dialects too. I have also completed psycholinguistic research projects investigating accent cues for talker identification in talker adaption and the effects of syntactic ambiguity on anticipatory eye movements. Additionally, I am interested in studying patterns of suicidal behaviour and have co-authored a paper investigating the influence of ecological factors on suicide attempts at a local area of interest. My teaching interests are focused on research methods and statistics in Psychology, as well as widening access to Higher Education. Outside of work, I enjoy volunteering for a cockatoo sanctuary where I have made a number of friends - both human and birdy!
- Research
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Research Overview
My primary research interests lie in language processing, where I engage in experimental psycholinguistic research. In particular, I am interested in how interlocutors from different dialectal backgrounds communicate effectively with one another during dialogue. My primary research methodology is eye tracking, which I use in conjunction with measures of lexical choice and reaction time. I also like to keep up with new developments in the areas of research methods and statistical analysis. As well as human language, I am also fascinated by animal language. During my free time, one of my favourite pursuits is the study of psittacine communication - that is, teaching parrots to talk!
Research Areas
Psychology
Research Specialisms
- Psycholinguistics
- Research Methods in Psychology
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology
- Animal Behaviour
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.