Summary

I am a Senior Lecturer in Psychology with research interests in reasoning and pain. I teach Educational Psychology.

Biography

I completed my BSc in Psychology (2007) and MSc in Research Methods in Psychology (2008) at the University of Kent. I then spent a year as a Research Assistant at the University of Nottingham on a numerical cognition project funded by the ESRC (2009-2010).

My PhD research at Loughborough University (2010-2013) investigated whether studying advanced mathematics improves one's logical reasoning skills, as suggested by the Theory of Formal Discipline and supported by numerous philosophers, mathematicians, and educational policy makers. I found evidence that there is some truth to the claim, although the effect may be more limited that previously thought.

After my PhD I spent two and a half years at the University of Bath (2013-2015) working on an industry-funded project looking at the effects of pain on attention.

I became a Lecturer in Statistics at Loughborough University in 2015 and spent five years there in the Mathematics Education Centre. During this time my research focused on understanding the effects of pain on numerical reasoning and decision making.

I joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Portsmouth in July 2020.

Research interests

• The development of reasoning skills in mathematics students
• Dual process theories of reasoning
• The effects of pain on attention, reasoning and decision making

Teaching responsibilities

I am module coordinator for the level 6 module Educational Psychology.