Jon May
Fax: +44 114 276 6515
Email: jon.may@sheffield.ac.uk
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Information about flickery dots and cravings for cigarettes is available here.
I am a Reader in the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield. I am the department's Director of Teaching, and teach on the 'Cognition and Emotion', 'Cognitive Psychology', 'Philosophical Issues in Psychology' and 'Research Methods in Psychology' modules. For the latter, and curious colleagues, I provide a page defining key statistical concepts.
Research Interests
My main fields are in Cognition and Emotion and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). I am currently researching the cognitive basis of affective disorders and addiction, in particular craving. With Jackie Andrade and David Kavanagh (Queensland), I am currently investigating the cognitive aspects of Mindfulness, and its usefulness in coping with cravings, especially in eating disorders. This work follows from my earlier work in attentional biases and information processing models of cognition, and is anl example of the application of theoretical models from core cognitive theory to real world applied problems. Within the Cognition and Emotion area, I have also become interested in the problem of causal inference, working with Marc Buehner (Cardiff); my perspective is that the significant role of beliefs and affect has been neglected in this field, and that emotional associations are used to guide inference. Most of my research funding has been won in the field of HCI. My aim is to strengthen the applied aspects of HCI while using it to evaluate and extend psychological theory. Currently, an EPSRC project held with Tim Gamble is looking at the dynamic transitions in computer interfaces, using eye-tracking equipment. Applied research such as this is essential for feeding the results of basic science through to its end-users in industry, commerce, the work-place and domestically, but also because it provides a pragmatic and realistic testing ground for theoretical models.All my work is done on Macs, and has been since 1989. I've never used MS Windows, and can't really see why I (or anyone) should.
...and I have just the thing for you if you need some random numbers, or if you want to run an STV Election Count.