I am a cognitive psychologist interested in memory and attention. I investigate attentional orienting effects and their potential for detecting memory in the absence of overt recognition (i.e., concealed recognition, prosopagnosia, amnesia). I have a special interest in face recognition, and I develop novel approaches for the detection of concealed recognition (e.g., lying about recognising someone or something you know). I’m also investigating the potential for novel neurocomputing technologies to model interactions between brain signals relating to memory and deception.

My current ESRC grant seeks to identify novel approaches to detecting concealed face recognition when a person denies recognising someone they know. I combine methodologies to identify objective evidence of face recognition to better understand how our brains recognise faces. I test the robustness of these signals for recognition detection when (i) familiarity varies and (ii) individuals use strategies to conceal their recognition (countermeasures).

My research interests span: visual attention, visual perception, recognition memory (faces, objects, scenes), associative memory, episodic memory, deception, memory confidence, metacognition, metacognitive strategies, cognitive neuroscience, neurocomputing, human learning and developmental psychology.

I am a member and leader of the Cognition in Complex Environments Research Group in Stirling (CoRGiS). I am also a member of the Stirling Vision and Image Processing Group (SVIP). I am a chartered member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) where I am registered with the cognitive psychology, defense and security psychology and psycholobiology sections.