What I do
I am an Associate Professor in Psychology at Swansea University.
Historically, I’ve broadly researched face perception from various angles. Over the years I’ve explored topics like:
- How aspects of facial colouration relate to actual and perceived health
- The way cosmetics are used to alter social perceptions
- Whether faces carry any information about physical and mental health
- What influences facial attractiveness, and what attractiveness means
Over the last few years, my interests have shifted to improving scientific and statistical practice in psychology. I am particularly interested in Bayesian inference and its potential to model complex psychological processes, as well as how data science/machine learning methods can give new insights in psychology. Some recent examples include:
- Regularised regressions for selecting variables that impact social perception
- Automating face research processes with deep learning frameworks
- Applying hierarchical Bayesian models to randomised controlled trials of sleep interventions
- Using big data sets of dating profiles to test evolutionary hypotheses
Have a look at my publications for more information!
I am also a expert user of the Python programming language, having used it extensively for almost a decade, and teach a short course on using it for data science and statistical inference. The notes for this (which are expanded periodically) can be found here.
Where I’ve been
| |
Education |
|
| Bangor University |
BSc Psychology |
2007-2010 |
| Bangor University |
PhD Psychology (supervised by Professor Robert Ward) |
2010-2014 |
| |
Experience |
|
| Bangor University |
Research Officer in the SOBA Lab |
2013-2014 |
| Gettysburg College |
Postdoctoral Researcher in the Perception Lab |
2014-2015 |
| Swansea University |
Lecturer -> Senior Lecturer -> Associate Professor |
2016 - Present |