Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (24)

The relationship between creativity and attention in adults (2018)
Journal Article
Carruthers, L., MacLean, R., & Willis, A. (2018). The relationship between creativity and attention in adults. Creativity Research Journal, 30(4), 370-379

Creativity is a valuable attribute that involves the generation of original ideas; attention is a vital function that facilitates information selection. There is some evidence that creative people may have poorer attention and are generally more dist... Read More about The relationship between creativity and attention in adults.

How evil people choose their victims: The Dark Triad and perceptions of personality traits and vulnerability (2016)
Presentation / Conference
Li Chung, K., Charles, K., Neill, C., & Willis, A. (2016, July). How evil people choose their victims: The Dark Triad and perceptions of personality traits and vulnerability. Poster presented at 18th European Conference on Personality, Timișoara, Romania

The Dark Triad (DT) – Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy – is associated with grandiosity, insensitivity, and exploitation. Some people are found to be more sensitive to verbal and non-verbal language, making them skilled at judging others... Read More about How evil people choose their victims: The Dark Triad and perceptions of personality traits and vulnerability.

Demonstrating the links between psychology and biology: the practical use of Biopac in undergraduate psychology teaching. (2016)
Presentation / Conference
Murray, J., Shaw, M., & Willis, A. (2016, January). Demonstrating the links between psychology and biology: the practical use of Biopac in undergraduate psychology teaching. Paper presented at The Teaching Fellows' Conference: innovations in teaching and supporting student learning, Edinburgh Napier University

For those unfamiliar with psychology, there is often a perception that it is a subject that is all about the mind and ‘talking therapies. However, since the 1930s this has not been the case. Modern psychology seeks to build our knowledge base about h... Read More about Demonstrating the links between psychology and biology: the practical use of Biopac in undergraduate psychology teaching..

Visual-spatial-motor integration in a cross-section of primary-aged children: implications for assessing risk of Dyslexia (2015)
Conference Proceeding
Piotrowska, B., Willis, A., MacLean, R., Murray, J., & Kerridge, J. (2015). Visual-spatial-motor integration in a cross-section of primary-aged children: implications for assessing risk of Dyslexia. In Proceedings European Conference on Visual Perception ECVP 2015

Dyslexia is a common condition characterized by difficulties with reading and writing despite adequate intelligence, education and motivation. Many individuals with dyslexia also have problems integrating visual information over space and time, and /... Read More about Visual-spatial-motor integration in a cross-section of primary-aged children: implications for assessing risk of Dyslexia.

Visualising Energy Use for Smart Homes and Informed Users (2015)
Journal Article
Stinson, J., Willis, A., Williamson, J. B., Currie, J., & Smith, R. (2015). Visualising Energy Use for Smart Homes and Informed Users. Energy Procedia, 78, 579-584. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2015.11.015

We evaluate the changes to domestic electricity and gas consumption when the occupants have local access to a coloured real time in-home display (IHD). We report the preliminary six months findings of a three year research project involving 52 new bu... Read More about Visualising Energy Use for Smart Homes and Informed Users.

Performance on a tablet-based visual-spatial-motor task is compromised in adults and children with dyslexia: implications for the development of a novel screening tool (2014)
Presentation / Conference
Willis, A., Piotrowska, B., Bannach-Brown, A., MacLean, R. D. J., & Kerridge, J. (2014, March). Performance on a tablet-based visual-spatial-motor task is compromised in adults and children with dyslexia: implications for the development of a novel screening tool

Many adults and children with dyslexia also have problems with lower-level sensory, attentional, or motor tasks. In particular, there may be problems with auditory processing1, visual motion processing2-3, visual-spatial attention4, and motor control... Read More about Performance on a tablet-based visual-spatial-motor task is compromised in adults and children with dyslexia: implications for the development of a novel screening tool.

Effects of installing a marked crosswalk on road crossing behaviour and perceptions of the environment. (2012)
Journal Article
Havard, C., & Willis, A. (2012). Effects of installing a marked crosswalk on road crossing behaviour and perceptions of the environment. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 15, 249-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2011.12.007

A two-pronged study was conducted to investigate (a) pedestrians’ road-crossing behaviour and (b) perceptions of the walking environment, both before and after the installation of a marked crosswalk (zebra crossing) at a single case-study location in... Read More about Effects of installing a marked crosswalk on road crossing behaviour and perceptions of the environment..

Walking, talking and looking: effects of divided attention on gaze behaviour and visual search performance in a real-world environment (2010)
Journal Article
Wincenciak, J., Egan, C. D., & Willis, A. (2010). Walking, talking and looking: effects of divided attention on gaze behaviour and visual search performance in a real-world environment. Perception, 39, 35

Visually-guided behaviour in the laboratory may not always reflect that in larger-scale environments, using more realistic tasks. (eg Smith et al, 2008 Cogn Process 9 121-126). Here, we explored (1) what people look at; (2) how quickly they find a ta... Read More about Walking, talking and looking: effects of divided attention on gaze behaviour and visual search performance in a real-world environment.

The effects of a distractor on the visual gaze behaviour of children at signalized road crossings (2009)
Journal Article
Egan, C. D., Willis, A., & Wincenciak, J. (2009). The effects of a distractor on the visual gaze behaviour of children at signalized road crossings. Journal of Vision, 9(8), https://doi.org/10.1167/9.8.371

Children are over-represented in pedestrian injuries. This may be explained, at least in part, by poorer attentional mechanisms at the roadside compared with skilled adults. We have recently shown that children are more likely to attend to task-irrel... Read More about The effects of a distractor on the visual gaze behaviour of children at signalized road crossings.

Visual search for targets on natural textured backgrounds. (2009)
Journal Article
Green, P. R., Willis, A., & Egan, C. D. (2008). Visual search for targets on natural textured backgrounds. Perception, 38, (41). ISSN 0301-0066

Little is known about visual search for targets on natural, textured backgrounds, or about the capacity of biological camouflage patterns to provide protection across a range of backgrounds. The experiments described address both these problems. Obse... Read More about Visual search for targets on natural textured backgrounds..

Visual gaze behaviour of children and adult pedestrians at a signalized road crossings. (2008)
Journal Article
Egan, C. D., Willis, A., Ness, H., & Stradling, S. G. (2007). Visual gaze behaviour of children and adult pedestrians at a signalized road crossings. Perception, 37, (149). ISSN 0301-0066

Underdeveloped visual search strategies may be a contributing factor to children's involvement in pedestrian accidents. Although laboratory-based research suggests that the ability to detect targets in a cluttered scene may be less efficient in child... Read More about Visual gaze behaviour of children and adult pedestrians at a signalized road crossings..

Visual gaze behaviour of adults and older adults at a pedestrian crossing. (2008)
Journal Article
Egan, C. D., Willis, A., Ness, H., & Stradling, S. G. (2007). Visual gaze behaviour of adults and older adults at a pedestrian crossing. Perception, 37, (149). ISSN 0301-0066

Underdeveloped visual search strategies may be a contributing factor to children's involvement in pedestrian accidents. Although laboratory-based research suggests that the ability to detect targets in a cluttered scene may be less efficient in child... Read More about Visual gaze behaviour of adults and older adults at a pedestrian crossing..

A comparison of video and infrared based tracking of pedestrian movements. (2005)
Conference Proceeding
Kerridge, J., Kukla, R., Willis, A., Armitage, A., Binnie, D., & Lei, L. (2005). A comparison of video and infrared based tracking of pedestrian movements. In S. P. Hoogendoom, S. Luding, P. H. L. Bovy, M. Schreckenberg, & D. E. Wolf (Eds.), Traffic and granular flow 03 (383-392). https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28091-X_37

We provide a comparison of the relative merits of video and infrared based methods for collecting pedestrian movements from the real world and also from experimental environments. We describe the underlying technological basis of both methods and the... Read More about A comparison of video and infrared based tracking of pedestrian movements..

Human movement behaviour in urban spaces: Implications for the design and modelling of effective pedestrian environments. (2004)
Journal Article
Willis, A., Gjersoe, N., Havard, C., Kerridge, J., & Kukla, R. (2004). Human movement behaviour in urban spaces: Implications for the design and modelling of effective pedestrian environments. Environment and planning. B, Planning & design, 31(6), 805-828. https://doi.org/10.1068/b3060

Despite a burgeoning research effort directed at the design and modelling of effective urban spaces for pedestrians, remarkably little is known about how pedestrians actually negotiate urban spaces. This paper reports the results of a video-based obs... Read More about Human movement behaviour in urban spaces: Implications for the design and modelling of effective pedestrian environments..

Urban design principles for vulnerable pedestrian groups. (2004)
Conference Proceeding
Carreno, M., Stradling, S. G., Rye, T., & Willis, A. (2004). Urban design principles for vulnerable pedestrian groups. In M. Baohua (Ed.), Traffic and Transportation Studies - Proceedings of ICTTS 2004 (98-106)

Application of context-mediated behavior to a multi-agent pedestrian flow model (PEDFLOW). (2002)
Conference Proceeding
Kukla, R., Willis, A., & Kerridge, J. (2002). Application of context-mediated behavior to a multi-agent pedestrian flow model (PEDFLOW).

Developers of pedestrian models often overlook the fact that pedestrians are subjected to a multitude of influences when walking. The majority of existing models only focus on a single aspect, typically the avoidance of obstructions or other pedestri... Read More about Application of context-mediated behavior to a multi-agent pedestrian flow model (PEDFLOW)..

Laying the foundations: the use of video footage to explore pedestrian dynamics in PEDFLOW (2002)
Book Chapter
Willis, A., Kukla, R., Kerridge, J., & Hine, J. (2002). Laying the foundations: the use of video footage to explore pedestrian dynamics in PEDFLOW. In M. Schreckenberg, & S. Sharma (Eds.), Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics (181-186). Springer

This paper is concerned with how video footage of pedestrian activity in various urban environments can be used to inform the development of PEDFLOW - a microscopic, agent-based model of pedestrian flow that can be used to simulate the effects of an... Read More about Laying the foundations: the use of video footage to explore pedestrian dynamics in PEDFLOW.

Colour and luminance interactions in the visual perception of motion. (2002)
Journal Article
Willis, A., & Anderson, S. J. (2002). Colour and luminance interactions in the visual perception of motion. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 269, 1011-1016. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2002.1985

We sought to determine the extent to which red-green, colour-opponent mechanisms in the human visual system play a role in the perception of drifting luminance-modulated targets. Contrast sensitivity for the directional discrimination of drifting lum... Read More about Colour and luminance interactions in the visual perception of motion..

A binocular site for contrast-modulated masking (2001)
Journal Article
Harris, J. M., & Willis, A. (2001). A binocular site for contrast-modulated masking. Vision research an international journal in visual science, 41(7), 873-881. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0042-6989%2800%2900292-3

Contrast-modulated (CM) gratings, composed of two luminance-modulated sinusoids of similar spatial frequency, mask the detection of test sinusoids at the difference frequency. However, the mechanism underlying masking by CM gratings remains poorly un... Read More about A binocular site for contrast-modulated masking.