Dr Richard O'Connor
| Biography | Dr Richard O'Connor is a cognitive developmental psychologist with research interests in cognition from infancy through to adulthood. Particular areas of interest include theory of mind, representation of objects and actions, and word learning. You can find out more about his recent research here: https://cogproclab.wordpress.hull.ac.uk/who-we-are He joined the University of Hull in August 2016, after completing his PhD at the University of Cambridge and teaching positions at Royal Holloway and the University of Oxford. |
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| Research Interests | Dr O'Connor's current research falls pre-dominantly into two topics: theory of mind and word learning. Within theory of mind, he is interested in the mechanisms by which we are able to infer the beliefs, knowledge and visual perspectives of other people. He investigates these in both children and adults, and in both typically developing populations and populations with known differences in theory of mind performance. Within word learning, his research has focused on the phenomenon of "fast mapping" (the rapid formation of an association between a word and its referent after minimal exposure), both in children and adults. He also investigates the role of gesture in word learning, particularly in second language learning. Across these two research areas he uses experimental, lab-based studies. In particular, his most recent research uses mouse-tracking to investigate the activation and competition between different response options when participants make a judgement, for example when judging the meaning of a word or another person's belief. He was recently awarded, with Prof Kevin Riggs, funding from the ESRC to investigate egocentric bias in belief processing using this methodology. For more information about this project, please see: https://cogproclab.wordpress.hull.ac.uk/the-pull-of-reality-egocentric-bias-in-adult-theory-of-mind/ More broadly, he is interested in cognitive development across the lifespan. His PhD investigated object and goal representations in infants, using search tasks, looking-time and gaze-contingent eye-tracking. |
| Scopus Author ID | 57196936530 |
| PhD Supervision Availability | Yes |
| PhD Topics | Dr O'Connor welcomes applications in any of the areas of cognition and cognitive development listed in his research interests, with applications to investigate theory of mind particularly welcome. Current PhD supervision: Alex Smith (with Dr Emmanuele Tidoni and Prof Kevin Riggs): knowledge and belief processing Thomas Thompson (with Dr Emmanuele Tidoni and Prof Kevin Riggs): automaticity of visual perspective-taking Completed PhD supervision: Erin Minton-Branfoot (with Dr Henning Holle): 'Gestures as a stepping stone into rapid second language acquisition.' (Funded by the ESRC White Rose) Andrew Lucas (with Prof Kevin Riggs and Dr Shane Lindsay): ‘The nature of novel word representations: computer mouse tracking shows evidence of immediate lexical engagement effects in adults’ (Funded by the University of Hull) |