Dr Helen Keyes

Helen researches in the area of health and wellbeing, including looking at public health, how cyclists and drivers interact with the road environment, and how we can encourage higher education students to thrive.

[email protected]

Background

Helen is a cognitive psychologist specialising in questionnaire-based and experimental psychology research, using these methods to discover how to improve road safety and other aspects of public health.

As an educator, Helen uses experimental methods to discover how best to motivate students in higher education to succeed.

Research interests

• Improving wellbeing and health at a population level
• Higher education student engagement, wellbeing, employability and success
• Cycling and driving behaviour
• Visual perception in driving, cycling and sport

Helen is a member of our Applied Social Change Research Hub, which forms part of our ARU Centre for Societies and Groups. Her research also comes under our Cognition Group, which is part of our ARU Centre for Mind and Behaviour.

Areas of research supervision

Dr Keyes is happy to supervise research in most areas of visual and aural perception, particularly in the areas of:

• Cyclist and driver behaviour
• Increasing uptake of cycling
• Visual perception in cycling, driving or sport

Find out more about our Psychology PhD.

Qualifications

• PhD Psychology, UCD Dublin
• BSc (Hons) Psychology, First Class Honours, UCD, Dublin
• PGCert Learning and Teaching, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
• SMI Level 7 Senior Leadership Programme, Institute of Government and Social Policy
• Heads of Leadership Development Programme, Progress 360
• Aurora Leadership Development Programme, Advance HE

Memberships, editorial boards

• Governor of Cambridge and Peterborough Foundation Trust
• Governor of ARU Peterborough
• Chair of the BPS East of England Branch (2019-21)
• Senior Fellow, the Higher Education Academy
• Associate Fellow, British Psychological Society
• Member of the Association of Heads of Psychology Departments, UK
• Member of ARU Senate
• Academic Lead for Embedding Wellbeing into the Curriculum, ARU
• Chair of Academic Misconduct and Plagiarism work-stream, ARU
• Member of Student Wellbeing Strategy Steering Group, ARU

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Consultant for Colchester Borough Council, 2020: Enhancing Bikeability delivery
• Consultant for the Children’s Traffic Club, 2019
• Cambridgeshire County Council funding, 2017: Improving driver perception of oncoming motorcycles
• BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, 2015: Preparing drivers to respond to road turns safely: What neural mechanism drives differences between experienced and novice drivers?

Selected recent publications

Smith, L., Guillermo, F. L. S., Oh, H., Jacob, L., Kostev, K., Rahmati, M., Butler, L., Keyes, H., Barnett, Y., Keon Yon, D., Il Shin, J. and Koyanagi, A. (2024) 'Temporal trends of physical fights and physical attacks among adolescents aged 12-15 years from 30 countries from Africa, Asia and the Americas', Journal of Adolescent Health. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.12.005

Smith, L., Guillermo, F. L. S., Tully, M. A., Rahmati, M., Oh, H., Kostev, K., Butler, L., Barnett, Y., Keyes, H., Il Shin, J. and Koyanagi, A. (2024) 'Temporal trends of carbonated soft-drink consumption among adolescents aged 12-15 years from 18 countries from Africa, Asia, and the Americas, British Journal of Nutrition.

Cubbin, W., van Paridon, K., Keyes, H. and Timmis, M. (2024) 'Close passes caught on camera – How knowledge and behavioural norms relate to perceptions of liability when cars overtake cyclists', Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 100, pp. 308-322. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2023.12.002

Keyes, H., Gradidge, S., Gibson, N., Harvey, A., Roeloffs, S., Zawisza, M. and Forwood, S. (2023) 'Attending live sporting events predicts subjective wellbeing and reduces loneliness', Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 989706. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.989706

Smith, L., Haro, J. M., Alghamdi, A. A., Pizzol, D., Tully, M., Oh, H., Gibson, P., Keyes, H., Butler, L., Barnett, Y., Il Shin, J. and Konanagi, A. (2023) 'Temporal trends in bullying victimization among adolescents aged 12-15 years from 29 countries: A global perspective', Journal of Adolescent Health.

Smith, L., López Sánchez, G. F., Veronese, N., Soysal, P., Rahmati, Jacob, L., Kostev, K., Haro, J. M., Alghamdi, A. A., Butler, L., Barnett, Y., Keyes, H., Tully, M., Il Shin, J. and Koyanagi, A. (2023) 'Dynapenic abdominal obesity increases risk for falls among adults aged ≥50 years: a prospective analysis of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing', The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 79(1), glad104. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glad104

Smith, L., López Sánchez, G. F., Veronese, N., Soysal, P., Oh, H., Kostev, K., Rahmati, M., Butler, L., Gibson, P., Keyes, H., Barnett, Y., Il Shin, J. and Koyanagi, A. (2023) 'Association of fruit and vegetable intake with mild cognitive impairment in low- and middle-income countries', Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 78(8), pp. 1410-1416. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glad055

Smith, L., Veronese, N., Soysal, P., Oh, H., Barnett, Y., Keyes, H., Butler, L., Allen, P., Kostev, K., Jacob, L., Il Shin, J. and Koyanagi, A. (2022) 'Fruit and vegetable intake and non-communicable diseases among adults aged ≥50 years in low- and middle-income countries', Journal of Nutrition, Health and Ageing. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-022-1855-z

Harvey, A. J. and Keyes, H. (2019) 'How do I compare thee? An evidence-based approach to the presentation of class comparison information to students using Dashboard', Innovations in Education and Teaching International. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2019.1593213

Keyes, H., Green, F., Compton, C. and Staton, M. (2019) 'Cognitive conspicuity training does not improve driver detection of motorcycles at road junctions', Transportation Research Part F.

Keyes, H., Whitmore, A., Naneva, S. and McDermott, D. (2018) 'The priming function of in-car audio instruction', The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818773293

Keyes, H. and Zalicks, C. (2016) 'Socially important faces are processed preferentially to other familiar and unfamiliar faces in a priming task across a range of viewpoints', PLoS ONE, 11(5), e0156350. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0156350

Keyes, H. and Dlugokencka, A. (2014) 'Do I have my attention? Speed of processing advantages for the self-face are not driven by automatic attention capture', PLoS ONE, 9(10), e110792. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110792

Keyes, H. (2012) 'Categorical perception effects for facial identity in robustly represented familiar and self-faces: The role of configural and featural information', The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65(4), pp. 760-762.

Rooney B., Keyes, H. and Brady, N. (2012) 'Shared or separate mechanisms for self-face and other-face processing? Evidence from adaptation', Frontiers in Perception Science, 3(66). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00066

Keyes, H. and Brady, N. (2010) 'Self-face recognition is characterised by faster, more accurate performance, which persists when faces are inverted', The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(5), pp. 840-847. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/17470211003611264

Keyes, H., Brady, N., Reilly, R. B. and Foxe, J. J. (2010) 'My face or yours? Event-related potential correlates of self-face processing, Brain and Cognition, 72(2), pp. 244-254. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/jbandc.2009.09.006

Recent presentations and conferences

Wascher, C., Parris, C. and Keyes, H. (2022) 'Promotion support initiatives in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Anglia Ruskin University', Diversity Interventions Conference, Oxford, UK.

Keyes, H., Timmis, M. and Van-Paridon, K. (2019) 'Cycling Research Ideas Lab', Cycle County Active County Essex, Essex, UK.

Keyes, H., Staton, M., Green, F. and Compton, C. (2018) 'Look-but-fail-to-see errors', The National Road Safety Conference, Brighton, UK.

Keyes, H. and Ray, P. (2017) 'Fast friends: Speeded processing for personally familiar faces compared to other highly familiar and unfamiliar faces', British Psychological Society Cognitive Section Conference, Newcastle, UK.

Keyes, H. and Zalicks, C. (2016) 'The social importance of a face affects recognition speed across a range of viewpoints', British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Nottingham, UK.

Keyes, H., Whitmore, A. and Naneva, S. (2016) 'The use of visual and audio primes while driving', British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Nottingham, UK.

Keyes, H., Dlugokencka, A. and Tacel, G. (2013) 'Do I have my attention? Our own face may be special, but it does not grab our attention more than other faces', European Conference on Visual Perception, Bremen, Germany. Perception, 42, ECVP Abstract Supplement. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1068/v130176

Keyes, H. and Dlugokencka, A. (2013) 'Don't mind me: Speed of processing advantages for self-referential material are not due to attention-grabbing properties of those stimuli', British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Harrogate, UK.

Keyes, H. (2010) 'Categorical perception effects for familiar face processing persist for inverted self-faces, British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK.

Keyes, H. and Brady, N. (2009) 'Self-face processing advantages persist when faces are inverted', British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Brighton, UK.

Keyes, H. and Brady, N. (2007) 'My face or yours? Early and late ERP correlates of self-face perception', European Conference on Visual Perception, Arezzo, Italy. Perception, 36, ECVP Abstract Supplement. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1068/v070367

Keyes, H., Brady, N. and Rooney, B. (2007) ''Natural Categories' in self/other face perception?', British Psychological Society: The XXIV Annual Cognitive Section Conference, University of Aberdeen, UK.

Keyes, H., Brady, N. and Reilly, R. (2006) 'Neurophysiological correlates of self-face recognition', British Psychological Society Annual Conference: Student Section, Cardiff, UK.

Keyes, H., Brady, N., Maguire, A. and Reilly, R. (2005) 'Neurophysiological correlates of self-face recognition', European Brain and Behaviour Society 37th Annual General Conference, Dublin, Ireland.

Media experience

'Watching sports in person linked to satisfaction, less loneliness', Washington Post, 26 March 2023.

Helen was the resident neuroscience news expert for Naked Neuroscience.

‘You build in, rather than tack on, change’, profile interview in The Psychologist, 2 November 2020.

So you want to work with children?, Online BPS careers event, 10 September 2020.