All Outputs (12)

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 Contribution
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 Contribution
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

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..

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 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..

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..

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.

Effects of glaucoma and aging on photopic and scotopic motion perception. (2000)
Journal Article
Willis, A. & Anderson, S. J. (1999). Effects of glaucoma and aging on photopic and scotopic motion perception. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science. 41. . 325-335. . ISSN 0146-0404.

PURPOSE: To examine the effects of primary open-angle glaucoma and normal aging on visual sensitivity for targets known to bias responses from the magnocellular visual processing stream. METHODS: Contrast sensitivity was measured for the detection... Read More about Effects of glaucoma and aging on photopic and scotopic motion perception..

Comparing Contrast-Modulated and Luminance-Modulated Masking: Effects of Spatial Frequency and Phase (2000)
Journal Article
Willis, A., Smallman, H. S., & Harris, J. M. (2000). Comparing Contrast-Modulated and Luminance-Modulated Masking: Effects of Spatial Frequency and Phase. Perception, 29(1), 81-100. https://doi.org/10.1068/p2999

The masking of a sinusoidal test grating by contrast-modulated (CM) gratings could, in principle, be attributable to the presence of a distortion product, injected into the stimulus during some nonlinear transformation at an early level of visual pro... Read More about Comparing Contrast-Modulated and Luminance-Modulated Masking: Effects of Spatial Frequency and Phase.