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Dr Catherine Thompson

SENIOR LECTURER IN PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
0151 291 3412
thompsc1@hope.ac.uk

I am a cognitive psychologist with a background in experimental psychology. I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Lincoln and then completed an MSc in Psychological Research Methods and a PhD in Psychology at the University of Nottingham. Following my PhD, I worked as a post-doctoral researcher on a one-year project funded by the ESRC. I started working as a Senior Lecturer at Liverpool Hope University in September 2022 and prior to that I worked as a Lecturer at the University of Salford.

My research focuses on visual attention and top-down control, and I am particularly interested in using low-level theories of attention and control to model and understand behaviour in real-world settings. Since starting my PhD, I have been investigating the persistence of top-down attentional set (an effect termed "attentional inertia") and I have applied my work to the field of driving and to occupational settings in which habitual behaviours may pose a safety risk.

I am also interested in emotional and environmental influences on cognition and wellbeing, such as the effects of emotion on visual attention, and the beneficial impact of nature environments on attention restoration. I have gained funding for my research from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, the Experimental Psychology Society, the British Psychological Society, and the Fire Service Research and Training Trust.

 

Selected Publications:

Bendall, R. C. A., Eachus, P., & Thompson, C. (2022). The influence of stimuli valence, extraversion, and emotion regulation on visual search within real-world scenes. Scientific Reports, 12, 948, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-04964-y

Thompson, C., Pasquini, A., & Hills, P. J. (2021). Carry-over of attentional settings between distinct tasks: A transient effect independent of top-down contextual biases. Consciousness and Cognition, 90, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103104.

Thompson, C., Quigley, E., & Taylor, A. (2020). The influence of a short-term mindfulness meditation intervention on emotion and visual attention. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-020-00174-4

Bendall, R. C A., Mohamed, A., & Thompson, C. (2019). Emotional real-world scenes impact visual search. Cognitive Processing, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10339-018-0898-x

Thompson, C., & Ong, E. (2018). The association between suicidal behavior, attentional control, and frontal asymmetry. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 9 (79). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00079

Thompson, C., & Sabik, M. (2018). Allocation of attention in familiar and unfamiliar traffic scenarios. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 55, 188-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2018.03.006

Bendall, R. C. A., Eachus, P., & Thompson, C. (2016). A brief review of research using near-infrared spectroscopy to measure activation of the prefrontal cortex during emotional processing: The importance of experimental design. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00529

Hills, P. J., Thompson, C., Piech, R. M., Painter, L., & Pake, J. M. (2016). Attentional modulation of the carry over of eye-movements between tasks. Acta Psychologica, 167, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.03.012  

Thompson, C., Howting, L., & Hills, P. (2015). The transference of visual search between two unrelated tasks: Measuring the temporal characteristics of carry-over. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68 (11), 2255-2273. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1013042