University of Hertfordshire

Department of Psychology
University of Hertfordshire
College Lane
Hertfordshire
AL10 9AB

Tel : 01707 285282
Fax : 01707 285073

Email :

j.a.k.erskine@herts.ac.uk

Telephone:

01707 284641

Location:

H174

Subject Area :

Attention, consciousness and space in neurological patients and healthy people: Mental control and memory.

Personal Statement

Currently I have two main research areas. Firstly, I work with Prof Anthony Marcel as a postdoctoral researcher investigating aspects of perceptual consciousness. Secondly I also conduct research on mental control and memory.

In my work with Prof Marcel, we currently focus on investigating perceptual migration in healthy people and its relation to allochiria, neglect and extinction. In all cases our work is conducted collaboratively.

In my work on mental control and memory I am interested in the mechanisms that underlie inhibitory processes within cognition and why these processes often result in paradoxical effects.

Further academic interests :

1. The phenomenon of repression and how this may or may not be related to more volitional thought suppression.
2. How the environment cues thought processes and intentional acts e.g. responding to a prospective memory target.
3. Mind popping and involuntary thought.
4. The nature of intentions and volition in general especially how goals and intended actions are represented, stored and acted upon in the presence of the right action cues.

Outside of psychology my interests include;
Russian culture, language and literature especially Dostoyevsky, Bulgakov, Tolstoy. European literature - Hugo, Kafka, Kundera, Houellebecq, Hamsun, Montaigne, Camus
Shaolin Gong Fu and Russian martial arts
Classic cars - Especially AC428, Alpine Renault, and Nissan Skyline

Research

Member of Research Group: Learning, Memory and Thinking

My work with Prof Marcel includes the following:

1. Perceptual migration and neglect
(a) Testing the role of perceptual migration in patients with spatial neglect.
(b) Assessing whether TMS at site(s) known to induce neglect in healthy people induces greater neglect in those people showing higher rates of perceptual migration.
(c) Using fMRI to test differences in functioning between those with high and low rates of perceptual migration and between trials with correct and erroneous experienced location and the location of any such differences.
(d) Assessment of whether 1st-order relatives of RBD patients with neglect show a greater tendency to perceptual migration than those of RBD patients without neglect. Our earlier research has suggested that a tendency to perceptual migration might be a subclinical precursor of neglect and that there may be a genetic link.

2. Investigating different kinds of deficit underlying anosognosia for (unawareness of) hemiplegia.

3. Spatial frames of reference in different perceptual modalities, especially in tactile/haptic attention and interference; interaction of perceptual modalities in tactile sensitivity.

In my other work I am investigating possible mechanisms that underlie paradoxical effects often found after thought suppression. In undertaking this research I am using both self report measures and more robust behavioural indices of underlying thought processes (e.g. using reaction time as a measure of underlying construct activation or Galvanic Skin Response measures). In addition I am currently conducting studies looking at whether suppressed intentions/ and or behaviours can rebound. In short if you try to prevent yourself from acting in a certain way do you paradoxically become more likely to engage in this very behaviour. Further research being conducted involves investigating the effects of various types of reminders on prospective memory performance.

Teaching

I am a first year tutor on the BSc (Hons) psychology course.

I am module leader for the MSc conversion course statistics program

I have a number of final year (BSc) project students working on projects involving thought suppression, repressive coping and behavioural control.

Publications

Erskine, J.A.K. (2007). Resistance can be futile: Investigating behavioural rebound. Appetite, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2007.09.006

Erskine, J.A.K., Kvavilashvili, L., & Kornbrot, D.E. (2007). The predictors of thought suppression in young and old adults: Effects of anxiety, rumination and other variables. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 1047-1057.

Erskine, J.A.K., Kvavilashvili, L., Conway, M.A., & Myers, L.B. (2007). The prevalence of repressive coping style in younger and older adults. Ageing and Mental Health, 11,394-404.

Wegner, D. M., & Erskine, J.A.K (2003). Voluntary involuntariness Thought suppression and the regulation of the experience of will. Consciousness and Cognition, 12(4), 684-649.

Erskine J.A.K., Kvavilashvili L. & Kornbrot D. (2003 March) The role of time delay and individual differences in the rebound effect and mental control. Presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference, Bournemouth

Erskine J.A.K., & Kvavilashvili L. (2001, July). Effects of thought suppression / expression on prospective memory, and the nature of the rebound effect during the performance of an attentionally demanding task. Paper presented at the 3rd International Conference on Memory, Valencia, Spain.