ARU Centre for Mind and Behaviour

Prof Jane Aspell: Presented as part of a symposium at the annual conference of the European Society for Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience in Belgium.

Prof Jane Aspell: Presented a talk, 'Constructing the self: how the brain creates self-consciousness' at the International Bioethics Conference.

Prof Sharon Morein: Presented in an expert panel on 'Foundations and Evolution of Hoarding' at the International OCD Foundation Annual Conference in Florida.

Phaedra Longhurst: Delivered a talk and workshop at the International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED) in New York.

Prof Jane Aspell: Gave a public talk at New Scientist 'Instant Expert: Inside the Conscious Mind' one-day masterclass in London in September.

Prof Jane Aspell: Published 'Out-of-Body Experiences: Explaining the Brain', Psychology Subject Spotlight video on Springpod.

Dr Jennifer Todd and Prof Jane Aspell: Organised PPI event 'Fibromyalgia and the body: A public research showcase'.

The Possessions and Hoarding Collective: Held two events at the Cambridge Festival Family Weekend with over 10,000 attendees. Public engagement activities were led by PhD students Enes Kartal and Laura Laken.

Enes Kartal: Gave a talk on his PhD research at the UK Hoarding Research Network in Birmingham.

Prof David Pearson: Presented on heuristic-based errors during intuitive spatial reasoning at 18th European Workshop on Imagery and Cognition in June.

Dr Sharon Geva: Interview on the neuroscience of inner speech, Imperial College London Radio Station, June.

Prof Sharon Morein: 'You’re not a hoarder, so why do you have so much clutter?', The Telegraph, April.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: The Psychology Behind Humor, Psychology Today, March.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: Organised the Festival of Consumer Sciences, March.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: Talk on The Psychology of Shopping at the Cambridge Festival, March.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: Featured in the programme M&S: How they got back on top, Channel 5, March.

Prof Sharon Morein-Zamir: Gave a talk entitled “Too much stuff in the house! Why do people hoard?” at the Cambridge Festival.

Dr Elena Sakkalou: Gave a keynote speech sponsored by Guide Dogs for the Blind at the Visionary Conference to all charities working in the field of visual impairment.

Dr Ruth Ford: Led the ARU Kids Club at the Chelmsford Science Festival Family Days in October, with the help of Hugo Hassanzadeh-Ghannad, Maria Imelda, Lou Redshaw, Ella Walton, and Syeda Asma.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: 'The Royal Brand Affects How We See Football', Psychology Today, September.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: Shrinkflation: Deception or Good Business?, Psychology Today, September.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: Wilko customers bid farewell to Cambridgeshire stores for final time, Planet Radio interview, September.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: 'How pubs could get drinkers to swallow a peak-time price rise', The Conversation, September.

Prof Sharon Morein: Public talk at the Cambridge Wellness Festival (September), and with PhD student Enes Kartal, led activities with the public.

Prof Jane Aspell: Public talks to the Cambridge Rotary Club and Cambridge Skeptics Group, September.

Prof Jane Aspell: 'Innovations in Investigating and Treating Chronic Pain', joint presentation with Kirk Woolford, Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and ARU Joint Conference on Digital Innovations in Practice, September.

Prof Peter Bright: New Developments in Baseline Neuropsychological Assessment, joint presentation with Dr Ian van der Linde, Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and ARU Joint Conference on Digital Innovations in Practice, September.

Prof David Pearson: Eye movements and perceptual disturbances, joint presentation with David Ho, Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and ARU Joint Conference on Digital Innovations in Practice, September.

Prof Peter Bright and Dr Jane Aspell were on the organising committee for the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust and Anglia Ruskin University Joint Conference on Digital Innovations in Practice.

Lorraine Tindale: Poster presentation at the Annual Conference of the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies in Cardiff, July.

Dr Elizabeth Kirk: Organiser, public and professional engagement day at ARU Cambridge on Infant Cry Research, July. Attendees included the NSPCC, Mind, social workers, midwives, local mental health charities, and families.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: 'How Consumers Can Help the Planet: Reuse and upcycle', Psychology Today, July.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: 'Consumers Want Brands to Be Authentic: Businesses should pay attention', Psychology Today, May.

Prof Sharon Morein-Zamir: 'New guidelines help GPs diagnose hoarding as a mental health condition – are you at risk?', The Sun, May.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: 'The Price of Products Guides Consumer Expectations: More than just a number', Psychology Today, May.

Prof Jane Aspell: Expert shares fascinating insight into why some people have near-death experiences, The Mirror, April.

Prof Jane Aspell: 'Instant Genius Podcast: Out-of-body experiences', BBC Science Focus magazine, April.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: 'SHOPPING SECRETS: I’m a psychologist – the secret labels and tricks supermarkets use to make you spend more and how to avoid them', The Sun, April.

Prof Sharon Morein-Zamir: 'Are YOU a secret hoarder? Psychologist reveals the three tell-tale signs to watch out for', Daily Mail, March.

Prof Jane Aspell: 'A Dream Collaboration for Neuroscientists and Artists', Neuroscience News, March.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: 'Expert shares 'nonsense' shopping mistake many will fall for this Valentine's Day', The Mirror, February.

Prof Sharon Morein-Zamir: 'Hoarding in adults with ADHD: why inattention (also) matters', seminar, Institute for Challenging Disorganization, January.

Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd: 'TAKE NOTE: I’m a psychologist – simple basket trick supermarkets use to make you spend more and how to avoid it', The Sun, January.

Dr Elena Sakkalou: Organiser, Mary Kitzinger Trust workshops for professionals, clinicians, and researchers, working with children with visual impairment.

Dr Julia Gillard: 'Trauma, trauma informed practice and supporting LGBT+ veterans', seminar delivered to Fighting with Pride charity.

van der Linde, I. and Bright, P. (2024) 'The prediction limits of the National Adult Reading Test and its abbreviated and international variants', Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (in press).

Finn, D., Cardini, F., Aspell, J. E., Swami, V. and Todd, J. (2024) 'The Impact of Body Image on Social Cognition: Fear of Negative Evaluation Mediates the Relationship between Body Surveillance and Interpersonal Distance in Women', Body Image (in press).

Oliver, A., Chandler, E. and Gillard, J. (2024) 'Impact of Digital Inclusion Initiative to Facilitate Access to Mental Health Services: Service User Interview Study', JMIR Ment Health, 11, e51315. Available at: https://mental.jmir.org/2024/1/e51315

Longhurst, P., Todd, J., Aspell, J. E. and Swami, V. (2024) 'Psychometric evaluation of a revised version of the body appreciation scale-2 for autistic adults (BAS-2A)', Body Image, 49, 101706. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101706

Todd, J., Plans, D., Lee, M. C., Bird, J. M., Morelli, D., Cunningham, A., ... and Aspell, J. E. (2024) 'Heightened interoception in adults with fibromyalgia', Biological Psychology, 186, 108761. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2024.108761

Gwyther, M. P., Lenggenhager, B., Windt, J. M., Aspell, J. E. and Ciaunica, A. (2024) 'Examining the association between depersonalisation traits and the bodily self in waking and dreaming', Scientific Reports, 14(1), 6107. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56119-w

Salzer, E. B., Meireles, J. F. F., Kirk, E., Preston, C. E., e Sá, D. V. and Neves, C. M. (2024) 'Body understanding measure for pregnancy scale (BUMPs): Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties among Brazilian pregnant women', Body Image, 49, 101689. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101689

Stafford, L., Munns, L., Crossland, A. E., Kirk, E. and Preston, C. E. (2024) 'Bonding with bump: Interoceptive sensibility moderates the relationship between pregnancy body satisfaction and antenatal attachment', Midwifery, 131, 103940. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2024.103940

Parker Jones, O., Geva, S., Prejawa, S., Hope, T. M. H., Oberhuber, M., Seghier, M. L., Green, D. W. and Price, C. J. (2024) 'Dissociating cerebellar regions involved in formulating a sentence plan and articulating it overtly', Neurobiology of Language. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00148

Geva, S., Hoskote, A., Sainee, M., Clark, C. A., Banks, T., Chong, W. K. K., Baldeweg, T., de Haan, M. and Vargha-Khadem, F. (2024) 'Cognitive outcome and its neural correlates after cardiorespiratory arrest in childhood', Developmental Sciences, e13501. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13501

Jansson-Boyd, C. V., Mul, C. L. and Raeva-Beri, D. (2024) 'Cerebrating and engagement, paths to reduce fresh produce waste within homes', Scientific Reports, 14(1), 8120. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58250-0

Jansson-Boyd, C. V. and Mul, C. L. (2024) 'Drivers That Affect Households to Reduce Food Waste: A UK Qualitative Study. Sustainability', 16(5), 2188. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/su16052188

Pearson, D. (2024) 'Mental Imagery and Creative Cognition'. In: Ball, B. and Vallée-Tourangeau, F. (2024), The Routledge International Handbook of Creative Cognition. 1st edn. Abingdon: Routledge.

Crossland, A. E., Munns, L., Kirk, E. and Preston, C. E. J. (2023) 'Comparing body image dissatisfaction between pregnant women and non-pregnant women: a systematic review and meta-analysis', BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 23(1), pp. 709. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05930-w

Morein-Zamir, S. and Ahluwalia S. (2023) 'Hoarding disorder: evidence and best practice in primary care', British Journal of General Practice, 73 (729), pp. 182-183. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp23X732513

Hodgetts, C. J., Close, J. O. E. and Hahn, U. (2023) 'Similarity and structured representation in human and nonhuman apes', Cognition, 236, 105419. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105419

Anastasiades, E., Todd, J., Argyrides, M. and Swami, V. (2023) 'Psychometric properties of a Greek translation of the Functionality Appreciation Scale (FAS) in adults from the Republic of Cyprus', Body Image, 45, pp. 25-33. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2023.01.010

Kuppen, S. (2023) 'Supporting Students in School. BACP Children, Young People and Families', British Association for Counselling Psychologists, June 2023, pp. 26-28.

Zühlsdorff, K., Dalley, J. W., Robbins, T. W., and Morein-Zamir, S. (2023) 'Cognitive flexibility: neurobehavioral correlates of changing one's mind', Cerebral Cortex. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhac431

Melegkovits, E., Blumberg, J., Dixon, E., Ehntholt, K., Gillard, J., Kayal, H., . . . Bloomfield, M. (2023) 'The effectiveness of trauma-focused psychotherapy for complex post-traumatic stress disorder: A retrospective study', European Psychiatry, 66(1), E4. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2022.2346

Prof Jane Aspell was a finalist in the 'Researcher of the Year' category of the 2024 Cambridge Independent Science and Technology Awards.

Congratulations to Fathima Kodakkadan for graduating her MPhil, 'Stress and resilience in parents of autistic children - a cross-cultural research', supervised by Dr Steven Stagg, Dr Eimear Lee, and Dr John Lambie.

Congratulations to Dr Piers Grey (supervised by Prof Jane Aspell, Dr Ruth Ford and Dr Steven Stagg) for passing his viva. Piers also shares his experience of overcoming others' preconceptions that he was not capable of a PhD because of his autism in a recent news release.

Congratulations to Dr Utkarsh Gupta, supervised by Prof Jane Aspell, Prof Peter Bright, and Dr Alex Clarke, for successfully passing his viva.

Prof David Pearson, Dr David Ho (Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust), and Dr Emily McKendrick were awarded £9,924 from the FSE QR Pump Priming funding scheme, for researching eye movements and auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder.

Prof Jane Aspell, Prof Peter Bright and Dr Alex Clarke received the 2023 Faculty Award for Best PhD Supervisory Team.

Lovell Jones (PhD student) was awarded the BPS Psychobiology National Project Prize for her BSc Psychology project at ARU.

PhD student Rathna Seetharaman won Best Abstract Award at the 3rd Annual FSE Postgraduate Research Awards

Congratulations to the Summer Placement 2023 Award prize winners, with first place awarded to Pasha McDougall (Supervisor Prof Sharon Morein), second place awarded to Reema Kaur and El Buzhala (Supervisor Dr Martina Finessi/Dr Elena Sakkalou), and Anya Svecova (Supervisor Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd) awarded 3rd place and the audience award.

Congratulations to Emily McKendrick who successfully defended her PhD viva on 1st September, supervised by Prof David Pearson, Dr Mike Pake, and Dr Helen Keyes. Her examiners were Tony Craig (James Hutton Institute) and Dr Matt Bristow (ARU).

Congratulations to postgraduate student Komal Ramlagun, supervised by Prof Cathrine Jansson-Boyd of the Cognition Group, who successfully passed her viva with some small amendments. Well done Komal!

Dr Elena Sakkalou has helped to organise and run two Mary Kitzinger Trust workshops in 2023 for professionals, clinicians, and researchers, working with children with visual impairment, in her role as a Mary Kitzinger Trust Workshop Organiser.

Rathna Seetharaman, supervised by Prof David Pearson, won Best Abstract Award for her presentation at the 3rd Annual FSE Postgraduate Research Awards in 2023.

Congratulations to postgraduate student, Dr Li Huan Tan, for the completion of their PhD, 'Exploring Preference and Attention Towards Social Mimicry in the Broader Autism Phenotype', supervised by Dr Steven Stagg and Dr Ruth Ford.

Congratulations to postgraduate student Fiona Howe, for the completion of their PhD, 'Sensory Processing in Autistic University Students', supervised by Dr Steven Stagg, Dr Ian van der Linde, and Dr Mick Finlay.

In 2023, Dr Elizabeth Kirk (lead of the Development and Lifespan Group) and Dr Sinead Rocha ran an interactive workshop for the under-2s and their caregivers - ARU Kids presents Baby Club – at both Chelmsford and Cambridge Science Festivals.

Prof Jane Aspell is very happy to share that, after a successful defence of his thesis, Piers Grey passed his PhD viva with minor corrections. Many congratulations Piers! Thanks and congratulations also to Dr Steven Stagg and Dr Ruth Ford for co-supervising.

Prof Sharon Morein-Zamir, co-lead of the Clinical and Wellbeing Group, for being awarded £21,000 for research entitled “Cambridgeshire Hoarding Forum: a case study of supporting front line service providers working for a marginalised community” by ARU Health Performance and Wellbeing.

Congratulations to Prof David Pearson, lead of the Cognition Group, for his recent promotion to Professor. David gave his inaugural lecture entitled “Tracking the mind's eye: The Psychology of attention and memory” on 10th May, 2023, to celebrate his academic success.

Dr Julia Gillard, member of the Clinical and Wellbeing Group, delivered training for Op COURAGE Warm Welcome Afghan Service to national Op Courage Network on working with culture and mental health in 2023.