Research

Research interests

Specific research interests

• Visual attentional processes that support motor control and decision making, in applied settings (e.g. the quiet eye) and in experimental settings (e.g. predictive processing accounts of vision and action). 
• Mechanistic theories of the anxiety-performance relationship, and transactional models of stress that explain individualistic reactions to performance pressure.
• Training interventions designed to expedite visuomotor skill learning (e.g. quiet eye/gaze training and implicit motor learning).
• Performance under pressure, and interventions that help to protect motor control and decision making in stressful environments.
• Simulated/synthetic training (e.g. the use of virtual reality simulations).
• The measurement of psychophysiological markers (e.g. workload, invested effort, fatigue, gaze control) to examine the human-machine interface in the context of skill learning and performance.

I am a chartered psychologist and work as a consultant with a number of different athletes and organisations to assess and develop training interventions, predominately through the use of eye tracking technology. I am a co-founder of Cineon Training, an organisaiton that designs and delivers immersive training interventions. 

Publications

Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year

No publications found

External Engagement and Impact

Awards/Honorary fellowships

Editorial responsibilities

Associate Editor - Cognitive Processing

Academic Editor - PLOS one

Associate Editor Fronteirs in Psychology- Movement Science and Sport Psychology

Editor for Special Issue- European Journal of Sport Sciences- The Quiet Eye.

Guest Associate Editor- Journal of Experimental Psychology- Human Perception and Performance.

Review Editor

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/xap/ 

Frontiers in Movement Science and Sport Psychology
www.frontiersin.org/movement_science_and_sport_psychology/about

Journal of Applied Sport Psychology (JASP): www.tandfonline.com/loi/uasp20

Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology (JSEP): journals.humankinetics.com/about-jsep

Human Movement Science (HMS): www.journals.elsevier.com/human-movement-science/

Journal of Sport Science (JSS): www.tandfonline.com/loi/rjsp20

Invited lectures

1. The Devon and Cornwall Police annual Men's Health Conference (Feb 2019): ‘The science of rising to the occasion’: Exeter City Football Club.
2. The Philosophical Breakfast Club Annual Conference (theme: High Performing Teams; May 2018).
3. Peninsula pre-hospital emergency medicine conference (Feb 2018). I spy with my virtual eye; performance psychology in action. Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
4. Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Salford (Dec 2017). Understanding and training expertise in surgery: How can this be applied to eye-hand coordination in upper-limb prosthesis users? Invited talk from Dr Greg Wood.
5. Fulham F.C. & University College London (June 2017). Decision making under pressure. Invited talk from Prof Vince Walsh.
6. The Institute of pre-hospital care: London’s air ambulance (June 2017). Factors affecting performance under pressure. Performance Psychology Symposium, Royal London Hospital.
7. Association of Applied Sport Psychology (May 2017). Workshop on eye tracking and virtual reality training, University of Winchester.
8. The 14th European Congress of Sport Psychology, Bern Switzerland. (June 2015). Invited Symposium: Perception & Action Coupling: The Quiet Eye in action.
9. University of Plymouth, College of St Mark and St John (May 2014). Visual attention and performance under pressure. Invited presentation to faculty members and undergraduate students.
10. University of Bern, Switzerland (Feb 2014). Developing Quiet eye theory. Invited talk to faculty members at annual ‘Winterakademie’.
11. Intuitive Surgical, California (Jan 2014). The da Vinci vs. conventional laparoscopy: Examining benefits for the surgeon. Key note speaker at the annual research symposium.
12. British Psychological Society workshop (Dec 2013). Using a Mobile Eye-tracker in Research and Applied Settings.
13. Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (October 2013). Stress, attention and human performance. Invited talk to the Psychology department.
14. Loughborough College (April 2013). Visual attention and performance under pressure. Invited talk to staff and students from Loughborough College and Loughborough University.
15. Intuitive surgical, California (April 2013). From Sport, to Surgery to Robotics; principles of skills acquisition and performance under pressure. Invited presentation to Intuitive surgical research and development team.
16. Exeter Surgical Health Services Research Unit (HeSRU). Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Exeter. (Sept 2012). Tracking surgeons – from the golf course to the theatre. Invited presentation to the president of the Royal College of Surgeons for the official opening of HeSRU.

Media Coverage

Interview with Rob Gray @ perceptionaction.com 

'VR for safety critical jobs'

‘Gaze Control Analysis to Train Golfers’

'Quiet Eye technique can greatly improve putting, scientists claim’

‘Keeping Your Eye on the Ball’

‘Surgeons perform better with eye movement training’
  Exeter
  Science Daily
  Time Magazine

‘Pioneering robotic surgery research taking place in Exeter’

‘The perfect penalty’

Teaching

At undergraduate level I teach on the Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology (ESS1605) module, and at postgraduate level I teach on the Current Issues in Sport and Exercise Psychology (M023) module.

I am the departments Admissions tutor, and co-director of Research.

Modules

2023/24

• ESS1605 - Foundations of Exercise and Sport Psychology

Supervision / Group

Postdoctoral researchers

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni