Senior Lecturer
- About
-
- Email Address
- helen.knight@abdn.ac.uk
- Office Address
- School/Department
- School of Psychology
Biography
I received a BSc. (hons.) First Class in Psychology from the University of Glasgow in 2009. Following this, I completed an MSc. in Cognitive Neuroscience at Durham University in 2010. In 2014, I completed my Ph.D. in Psychology, also at Durham University. Following my PhD, I worked as a Lecturer (2014-2019) and a Senior Lecturer (2019-2022) in Psychology at the University of Sunderland. During this time, I completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education and I am a Fellow of Advance HE. I joined the University of Aberdeen as a Senior Lecturer in 2022, and have been Director of Education for the School of Psychology since January 2023.
My main area of research lies in the study of cognitive biases in motivational behaviour with a focus on addiction, eating and sexual behaviour. Specifically, I examine the role of attention, biases of visual attention, and approach/avoidance biases in motivational behaviours such as alcohol consumption, other addictive behaviours (such as problem gambling), eating behaviours (such as voluntary diet choice and food craving in healthy aging), and sexual behaviours (such as partner choice and asexuality). I also examine cognitive models of attention and how cognitive control mechanisms are used to minimise distractions caused by cognitive biases. I am also part of a cross-institution research group examining monotropic attention in autism.
I am very happy to be contacted to discuss potential collaborations.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Director of Education for the School of Psychology
Chair of the School Education Committee
Member of the School Executive Committee
Member of the University Education Committee
Member of the School of Psychology Neurodiversity Committee
Member of the Applied Psychology and Human Factors Research Group
- External Memberships
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Member of the Society for the Study of Addiction
Fellow of Advance HE
Latest Publications
Unwrapped: Readiness-to-eat in food images affects cravings
Food Quality and Preference, vol. 105, 104782Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe role of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in attentional bias
Neuropsychologia, vol. 148, 107631Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] https://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/12641/
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107631
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Fearing the wurst: Robust approach bias towards non-vegetarian food images in a sample of young female vegetarian eaters
Appetite, vol. 149, 104617Contributions to Journals: ArticlesLight social drinkers are more distracted by irrelevant information from an induced attentional bias than heavy social drinkers
Psychopharmacology, vol. 235, pp. 2967-2978Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-018-4987-4
Altering attentional control settings causes persistent biases of visual attention
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 129 - 149Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1031144
- Research
-
Research Overview
My main area of research lies in the study of cognitive biases in motivational behaviour with a focus on addiction, eating and sexual behaviour. Specifically, I examine the role of attention, biases of visual attention, and approach/avoidance biases in motivational behaviours such as alcohol consumption, other addictive behaviours (such as problem gambling), eating behaviours (such as voluntary diet choice and food craving in healthy aging), and sexual behaviours (such as partner choice and asexuality). I also examine cognitive models of attention and how cognitive control mechanisms are used to minimise distractions caused by cognitive biases. Finally, I am involved in research examining monotropic attention in autistic adults, with an emphasis on integrating cognitive models of attention within autism research.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Psychology.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Psychology
Accepting PhDsResearch Specialisms
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychology
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
- Teaching
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Courses
Teaching Responsibilities
I am the course coordinator for PS4556 Psychology of Addiction
- Publications
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Unwrapped: Readiness-to-eat in food images affects cravings
Food Quality and Preference, vol. 105, 104782Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe role of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in attentional bias
Neuropsychologia, vol. 148, 107631Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] https://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/12641/
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107631
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Fearing the wurst: Robust approach bias towards non-vegetarian food images in a sample of young female vegetarian eaters
Appetite, vol. 149, 104617Contributions to Journals: ArticlesLight social drinkers are more distracted by irrelevant information from an induced attentional bias than heavy social drinkers
Psychopharmacology, vol. 235, pp. 2967-2978Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-018-4987-4
Altering attentional control settings causes persistent biases of visual attention
The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 129 - 149Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1031144