School of Psychology

Research summary

I’m particularly interested in the role that auditory perception plays in human cognition. Unlike vision, our auditory sense is always ‘on’-- our ears can’t be closed as can our eyes,  and we pick up auditory information from all directions. This means that it has the potential to provide us with information about the events in the world regardless of what we’re doing at a given time, but of course it also means that it can be a source of potential distraction. Much of my research has been concerned with such distraction – seeking to understand how auditory information may, despite our best efforts to ignore it, impact on our ability to perform different types of tasks. However, I’m also interested in how we use auditory information to accomplish functions such as short-term memory and how the brain uses auditory information to guide activity, especially in relation to how auditory processing relates to speech processing. Primarily I use behavioural experimental techniques to study these questions, although I have also recently begun to utilise brain imaging techniques to understand the processing of auditory information in the brain.

Teaching summary

Much of my teaching is at Level 1, where I run 3 practical classes in the Practical Psychology module (PS1015). I also provide 5 lectures on the Introduction to Psychology module (PS1016) on topics in cognitive psychology. In the first semester of Level 2, I run the practical components for the Cognitive, Social, and Biological Psychology modules (PS2015, PS2016, PS2017). My Level 3 teaching involves 4 hours teaching on the Normal and Impaired Hearing module (PS3308), where I discuss aspects of auditory perceptual organisation and auditory-motor processing. I provide tutorials at both Levels 1 and 2, a Level 2/Year 2 practical on false memories, and supervise final year project students.

Selected publications (2008 onwards)

Macken, W.J., Phelps, F., & Jones, D.M. (2009). What causes auditory distraction? Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 16, 139-144.

Woodward, A., Macken, W.J., & Jones, D.M. (2008). Linguistic familiarity in short-term memory: A role for (co-)articulatory fluency? Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 48-65.