Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)
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Fiona is the Course Director for the Undergraduate Certificate in Cognitive Psychology at ICE. She also tutors on the course, as well as tutoring on undergraduate degree courses in psychology and associated science/ social science topics for the Open University.
Fiona has been teaching psychology for eleven years. She has also been an active committee member on a Psychology Programme Team in an academic setting, and on one of the regional Branch committees of the British Psychological Society, promoting the advancement of psychological knowledge and offering networking opportunities.
Fiona uses a mix of lecturing and active participation in teaching, depending on the topic being dealt with. Students are encouraged to offer reflections based on their own experiences, which is particularly relevant for a topic such as cognitive psychology which relates so readily to everyday life. Fiona particularly encourages critical thinking and always urges students to question what they are learning and how that knowledge has been derived. She particularly appreciates the diverse backgrounds and aims of adult learners, and enjoys learning from them as much as teaching them.
Fiona’s research background is in cognitive psychology in the field of attention, specifically looking at multitasking behaviour. Her research looks at people’s ability to switch between different language tasks, assessing the speed of performance and looking in particular at the type of errors people make. Fiona has proposed a model to explain this behaviour (under development) and has recently looked at the type of cues that might help people multitask more effectively when they are dealing with language tasks (submitted for publication).
Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
