Research
Anyone familiar with video gaming can attest to the physiological response we experience following certain in-game events: a racing heartbeat as you narrowly avoid an enemy attack or sweaty palms as you make a risky play with for a big payoff. Within gaming communities, the term "sweaty" is even used as slang for taking the game too seriously.
I'm interested in how our relationship to virtual avatars mediates our physiological reactions to events within a virtual environment; if your avatar takes damage in a video game, do you react differently depending on your relationship to that avatar?
MSc Thesis
How do player-avatar relationships mediate physiological responses to in-game events?
Games Analysis Workshop 2019
The Games Analysis Workshop (GAW) is a two-day workshop where a diverse selection of approaches to game analysis are applied to a single game.
PsychoPy
Psychopy is graphical interface for building Psychology experiments, designed to be accurate enough for publication-quality research but intuitive enough for undergraduate students. Since May of 2020, I have been working as a Python developer, improving the front-end user interface and design of PsychoPy.
Publications
Papers
Mather, G., & Parsons, T. (2018). Adaptation reveals sensory and decision components in the visual estimation of locomotion speed. Scientific reports, 8(1), 13059
Mather, G., Sharman, R. J., & Parsons, T. (2017). Visual adaptation alters the apparent speed of real-world actions. Scientific reports, 7(1), 6738.
Conference Proceedings
Experience
Education
MSc Psychological Research Methods
The University of Lincoln
September 2017 - December 2019
How Do Player-Avatar Relationships Mediate Physiological Responses To In-Game Events?
BSc Psychology, First Class Honors
The University of Lincoln
September 2012 - June 2015
Relationships between evolutionary threat and spectral slope.
Employment
Python Developer
Open Science Tools Ltd.
Jan 2021 - Present
Once my contract under the University of Nottingham expired, I was taken on by OST on a permanent contract to continue improving PsychoPy, particularly the user interface.
Python Programmer for Psychopy
The University of Nottingham
May 2020 - Jan 2021
I was hired under a CZI grant to help improve the stability of PsychoPy around the 2020.2 and 2021.1 releases.
Psychology Technician
The University of Lincoln
January 2017 - May 2020
As a technician, I assisted staff and students with a variety of technical issues. In particular, scripting in Matlab, creating graphical resources and managing an online research presence.
Research Assistant
The University of Lincoln
April 2016 - December 2016
In 2016 I was employed by Professor George Mather at the University of Lincoln as a research assistant, assisting with the final year of a collaboration between himself and Doctor Rebecca Sharman, looking at early visual processing of human locomotion.
Awards
Technical Support in Psychology Research Award
From: British Psychological Society, July 2020
To: Psychology Technician Team (University of Lincoln)
Team Achievement Award: Best Achievement In Customer Service
From: University of Lincoln, December 2019
To: Psychology Technician Team
Memberships
University and College Union (UCU)
Member
January 2017 - Present
University of Lincoln School of Psychology Equality Committee (SPEC)
Technician Representative, LGBTQI+ Champion
January 2017 - May 2020
For more information on the School of Psychology Equality Committee, please see the SPEC website.
Association of Technical Staff in Psychology (ATSiP)
Member
January 2017 - May 2020
For more information on the Association of Technical Staff in Psychology, please see the ATSiP website.
University of Lincoln Perception, Action & Cognition (PAC) Research Group
Member
April 2016 - May 2020
For more information on the Perception, Action & Cognition group at Lincoln, please see the PAC group website.
Other Projects
Markmoji
Markmoji is a Python package which extends the basic markdown syntax using an easy to understand and quickly readable emoji-based syntax, allowing you to create custom HTML elements from just an emoji, a label and a URL. I created Markmoji for fun as a personal project, inspired mostly by needing an easy way to specify citations on this very website! You can read more about Markmoji here and you can install it via:
pip install markmoji
Talking Jobs with Dr Rachel Bromnick
Talking Jobs is an audio podcast aimed at Psychology students, introducing them to life after uni through interviews with professionals working in Psychology. All episodes are available to listen to for free on YouTube. I helped record and edit the videos, as well as starring in one!.
Typora
Typora is a markdown editor, this means that users can type content as they would in generic Notepad apps and this content will be styled according to a markdown syntax and a customisable CSS file. I've contributed the following CSS themes to Typora:
- Torillic
- Krafty
- Whitelines
- Blacklines
The Cognitive Daisy
The Cognitive Daisy is a visual aid for carers of patients with Alzheimer's and dementia. By representing cognitive functions as coloured petails, it gives carers a comprehensive overview of their patients' capabilities at a glance. I worked on the project as a research assistant, helping develop a guide for carers to understand the science behind the daisy.