Dr CLARE KIRTLEY | Staff Profile | The School of Psychology

Dr CLARE KIRTLEY

BSc, PhD, FHEA

Teaching Fellow

Contact Details

Telephone: work +44 (0)1224 273275
Email: clare.kirtley1@abdn.ac.uk
Address: The University of Aberdeen F09
William Guild Building
School of Psychology
University of Aberdeen

Biography

I studied Psychology as an undergraduate at the University of Dundee. After this, I went on to do my PhD at Dundee, under the supervision of Professor Ben Tatler. My thesis research examined how the intentions we form to act with objects can change our behaviour- first in how we inspect the world around us, and examine the objects in our environment, and then in the memories we form of these objects and their properties (shape, colour, etc.).

From 2015-2018, I worked in collaboration with Professor Tatler, Dr. Chris Murray (School of Humanities, Dundee) and Mr. Phillip Vaughan (Duncan of Jordanstone, College of Art and Design, Dundee) investigating how people read comics by recording their eye movements as they read through different panels, pages and stories.

I am currently employed as a Teaching Fellow, responsible for classes at second, third, fourth and Masters level, while continuing my research into the above areas; and I supervise different L4 dissertation projects on related topics.

I am also the staff co-ordinator for the Psychology Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) system, where undergraduate and MSc Conversion students can recieve academic support from other students who have been through the same courses. I was recently made a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Research

Research Interests

Active vision
Action
Eye-movements
Object memory
Intentions
Art and art composition
Words and images in combination
Everyday memory
Embodied cognition

Current Research

In my comics work, I am interested in how readers use the combination of words and images seen in comics to gather information, and successfully guide their eyes around the page.

My research into memory and action focuses on how our interaction within the environment can change the way we view and recall the information presented to us, and what this means for how we represent information.

Collaborations

Dr Chris Murray, College of Humanities, University of Dundee

Mr. Phillip Vaughan, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee

Research Grants

Postgraduate researcher on Comic Conventions: Understanding how people gather information conveyed jointly through word and image. ESRC funded grant, June 2015-May 2018

Teaching