Mr David Maidment
Overview
Research Group:
Attention & Memory Perception & Action Supervisor(s): Bill Macken
Petroc Sumner
Location: 64 Park Place
Email: MaidmentDW@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone: +44(0)29 208 74007
Research Summary
I have always had an enthusiastic interest in the field of Cognitive Psychology, with a specific interest in human learning and memory. Therefore, my past and current efforts centre on psychological theories of verbal short-term memory, with a keen focus on the role of presentation modality during serial memory tasks.
Teaching Summary
2009-present: Statistics teaching assistant for level 2 undergraduate psychology students in advanced statistical analyses, accompanied by practical demonstrations in SPSS (~ 4 hours of teaching per week), as well as marking exams (~ 50 scripts per semester) and assignments (~ 50 per semester).
2008-present: Postgraduate tutor for level 1 undergraduate psychology students in statistics and practical report writing. Marking of practical reports (~ 60 reports per annum).
Selected Publications (2008 onwards)
2012
Maidment, D. W. and Macken, W. J. (2012). The ineluctable modality of the audible: Perceptual determinants of auditory verbal short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38(4), 989-997. (10.1037/a0027884)
Publications
Full List of Publications
2012
Maidment, D. W. and Macken, W. J. (2012). The ineluctable modality of the audible: Perceptual determinants of auditory verbal short-term memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38(4), 989-997. (10.1037/a0027884)
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Research
Research Topics and Related Papers
My current research focuses upon the perception of verbal materials and how presentation modality can improve, or hinder, cognitive processing. For example, it may come as no surprise that when faced with the task to remember the order of, say a telephone number, it may be extremely difficult whilst also attempting to ignore background noise, say someone else talking. What may be more surprising however is that our memory for information that is heard is better than if that same information was presented in a written form. This auditory advantage still exits even when we are expected to remember the order of items in the presence of background sounds. The same cannot be said for written information. Nevertheless, when trying to remember items that have been mouthed, but not heard, (i.e. lipreading), our memory for order is information is akin to if it were presented auditorily.
As a result, I am currently formulating a number of experiments to demonstrate that the maintenance of verbal memory items is achieved by the same mechanisms responsible for serial ordering in language production, the locus of which could be supported by the motor system. The exception to this is likely to reside within the auditory system, which is believed to be specifically designed to learn and process sequential information, and thus provides a more accurate representation of order information relative to other senses.
Funding
My research at Cardiff University is currently funded by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) 1+3 postgraduate studentship.
Research Group
My research is currently supervised by Dr. Bill Macken (Reader, School of Psychology, Cardiff University), as well as Dr. Petroc Sumner (Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, Cardiff University). We form part of the ‘Perception, Memory and Language’ internal research group also consisting of Dr. Robert Hughes (Lecturer. School of Psychology, Cardiff University), Dr. John Marsh (Research Associate, School of Psychology, Cardiff University), and Michail Kozlov (PhD Stduent, School of Psychology, Cardiff University).
Research Collaborators
Dr. Bill Macken (School of Psychology, Cardiff University)
Prof. Dylan Jones (School of Psychology, Cardiff University)
Biography
Undergraduate Education
2004-2008: BSc Applied Psychology, Cardiff University. Awarded First Class Honours.
Postgraduate Education
2009-present: PhD student, School of Psychology, Cardiff University. Title: Short-Term Memory at the Interface of Action and Perception.
2008-2009: MSc in Social Science Research Methods (Psychological & Cognitive Processes), Research and Graduate School, Cardiff University. Awarded Distinction. Dissertation: Is reading lips like hearing voices? The role of modality in short-term memory performance.
Awards/External Committees
2010: First prize talk at the Speaking of Science postgraduate conference, Cardiff University (£100).
2008: Hywell Murrell Prize, on the recommendation of the School of Psychology (Cardiff University) for the best degree result in Applied Psychology (£200).
2010-present: Member of the Cognitive Section of the British Psychological Society (BPS).
2007-present: Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS).
Employment
2008: Research Assistant, School of Psychology, Irrelevant Sound Laboratory (Cardiff).
2006-2007: Research Assistant, Behavioural & Brain Sciences Unit, Institute of Child Health (London).