University of Leeds

The Institute of Psychological Sciences at the University of Leeds received a grade 5 in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise and a rating of "Excellent" for the quality of its teaching in the QAA Subject Review in November 2000. It has approximately 80 staff members, 50 postgraduate students and 780 undergraduate students (550 single honours + 220 joint honours). There are three main research groupings: Biopsychology, Cognitive Psychology, and Health Psychology. Members of the Cognitive Psychology group have been involved in Human-Computer Interaction research for a number of years, including contributing to the usability assessment components of two FP5 EC projects. There is a well equipped Psychology of Design Laboratory at the disposal of the group, with facilities for observing interaction, eye tracking, and psychophysiological recording. Current relevant research work includes the development of self-report measures that assess a range of responses to (including emotional) and perceptions of designs. Mostly this is being conducted in the context of packaging designs for consumer products. However, work is also in progress linking identified constructs to interface design.

Steve Westerman (b. 1957) received his PhD, an investigation of “Individual Differences in Human Computer Interaction” in 1993. He is currently appointed as a Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Psychological Sciences. He has held UK and EC research awards. He was a co-investigator on an EPSRC funded project examining human factors issues related to safety-critical systems and was Principal Investigator on an EPSRC funded project examining the use of spatial representations of databases. More recently, Dr Westerman was PI for the University of Leeds component of an EC project concerned with the development of ‘high tech’, in-store consumer support systems. His work on this project included managing the Work Package concerned with usability testing. This project was successfully completed in Oct 2004. Dr Westerman is currently conducting research, funded under the UK Waste and Recycling Action Plan, into consumer perceptions of packaging/container (e.g., bottles, jars) designs. Assessment of affective responses are particularly important and a range of qualitative (focus groups, interviews) and quantitative (self-report, eye tracking, facial EMG) data gathering techniques are being explored.

Peter Gardner (b. 1961) is a Senior Lecturer in Human Factors and Statistics based in the Institute of Psychological Sciences. He has wide-ranging research interests in the area of human interaction with technology. Following his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science, he worked at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford and then at the MRC/ESRC Social and Applied Psychology Unit, University of Sheffield. He has worked with Research Councils, the EC and a variety of industrial and public sector organizations. In particular, he worked on a project in collaboration with the Royal Mail looking into human issues surrounding the introduction of new mail sorting technology. He was principal investigator on an EC-funded project looking at the development of an e-learning platform for ‘socially fragile’ target users (young unemployed, IT-inexperienced mature users). His work on this project involved the gathering of requirements, producing design specifications and the evaluation of usability and satisfaction. He is currently part of a multi-disciplinary research team funded by the Department of Health looking at the design and acceptability of new medical technology.

Ed Sutherland (b.1971) is a Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology in the Institute of Psychological Sciences. He was awarded his PhD on “The role of probability in indicative and deontic conditionals” by the University of Wolverhampton in 2000, under the supervision of Professor Ken Manktelow. He then held the position of Research Fellow at the University of Reading working with Professor Frank McKenna investigating gender differences in driving behaviour funded by the AA Foundation for Road Safety. His current work focuses on factors involved in reasoning and decision making, specifically how real world factors such as probability and utility are incorporated into the decision process. He has recently co-designed an on-line personal tutoring and employability system in collaboration with a colleague from the Institute of Psychological Sciences and is working on a project funded by the Higher Education Academy to examine and develop academics’ understanding of employability.

Gareth Tuck (b. 1979) graduated from Hull University with a BSc. in Psychology in 2002. Since April 2003 he has been employed as Research Assistant. His first post, based at Northumbria University Psychology Department, was investigating individual differences in attitudes towards social and non-social memory failures. For the last two years he has been working with Dr Steve Westerman, initially on an EC funded project investigating computer-based consumer decision support and, more recently, on UK funded projects investigating the affective aspects of packaging design. This latter research has included the application of methodologies such as facial EMG and Gaze Tracking.