Professor Jon May

Professor of Psychology,

Qualifications

• PhD Psychology: ‘A Cognitive Analysis of Flexible Thinking’, University of Exeter, 1987
• BSc (Hons) Psychology, University of Exeter, 1983

Professional membership

• AFBPsyS (Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society)
• SFHEA (Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy)

Roles on external bodies

• Grant Reviewer for the EPSRC, ESRC, and BBSRC; 
• on the Peer Review Colleges of the EPSRC and BBSRC.
• Referee for:
• Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
• Journal Of Experimental Psychology: Applied
• Memory & Cognition
• British Journal of Psychology
• Cognition and Emotion
• Addictive Behaviors
• ERAB: Foundation for Addiction research
• British Journal of Medical Psychology
• British Journal of Anaesthesia
• Journal of Neuroscience Methods
• International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
• Human Computer Interaction
• ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
• Interacting with Computers
• Behaviour and Information Technology
• Information Science Review
• and several international HCI conferences.

Teaching interests

• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognition and Emotion
• Applied Psychology

Staff serving as external examiners

PhD examinations:

• Glasgow June 11 2002
• Hertfordshire June 19 2002
• Hull July 11 2002
• UCL Nov 10 2006
• Queensland, Australia March 9 2007
• York April 25 2007
• Cambridge June 12 2008
• Kent Jan 29 2009

Research interests

• Cognition and Emotion
• Human Computer Interaction
• Craving, Desire and Addiction
• Causal Inference
• Working memory, executive function and higher level cognition

Research groups

• Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC)

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

• Dr Nicandro Cruz-Ramirez: (Oct 98-Jan 02) Building Bayesian Networks from Data: a Constraint based Approach
• Mark Irwin MPhil: (Oct 00-Jan 02) Interference in memory from pre-existing associates
• Dr Stuart Booth: (Feb 98-Mar 02 PT) Multi-sensory theory for interface design
• Dr Marc Bühner: (Oct 98-Mar 02 PT) Delay and Knowledge Mediation in Human Causal Reasoning
• Dr Evanilza Loureiro: (Oct 98-Dec 03) Logical and Emotional Argumentation by Brazilian Religious Ministers
• Dr Nathalie Panabokke: (Oct 01-Oct 04) Role of Visual Imagery in Craving
• Graeme Stewart MPhil: (Oct 03-Jun 05) A Hybrid Computational Model of Interacting Cognitive Subsystem
• Dr Tim Gamble : (Feb 01-Sept 06 PT) Doing two things: the effect of task complexity and structure on switch costs
• Dr Lisa-Marie Berry : ( Oct 05 - Sept 08) Cognitive Models of Craving
• Dr Joanna Blackburn : ( Jan 07 - Dec 09) The role of imagery in eating disorders
• Dr HelenBatey: (Jan 2007-June 2011 FT, ESRC National Competition) Intrusive Thoughts and Mindfulness in Deliberate Self Harm
• Dr Jessica Skorka-Brown: (April 2010 to March 2015)University of Plymouth Studentship; Imagery in craving

Grants & contracts

• £4,983 University of Plymouth Pedagogic Research and Teaching Innovation Fund (07/2017-09/2018) to DeAmicis, S (PI), May, J (CI), Gibson, H (CI) and Smart, C An exploration of how creative collaboration might be developed within Higher Education settings
• £500,000 European Regional Development Fund (05/2017-04/2020) to Jones, R (PI), May, J (CI), Andrade, J (CI) and others at Plymouth University (total award £2.5m) EPIC: eHealth productivity and innovation in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
• £6,478 University of Plymouth Humanities Research Institute (10/2017-09/2018) to Blow, M (PI), May, J (CI), Lawson Smith, M (CI) and Emmet, M (CI) Multisensory Aesthetics
• £440,000 Australian NMHRC APP1099400 (1/2016-12/2019) to Kavanagh, D (PI), May, J (CI), Andrade, J (CI) and others at Queensland University of Technology A new, low-cost e-health treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder using mental imagery
• £1,750 University of Queensland Travel Award 2014001739(7/2015-9/2015) to May, J ((PI)
• £255,000 EUFP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (2013-2017) FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN-IDP 604764"CogNovo: Cognitive Innovation": Project 7. Mental imagery and social interaction in dance choreography. May, J (Director), Grant, J., Matthias, J., Benjamin, A., deLaHunta, S. (Project total €4.1m: Denham S (Coordinator, Plymouth University)
•  £10,000 Queensland University of Technology (3/2013 to 2/2014) to Kavanagh, Andrade, May andsix others Test of a new, technologically-assisted motivational intervention forsubstance misuse in first episode psychosis. (AUS$15,000)
• £130,000: University of Plymouth (07/10-06/13) S. Pahl, M.White, J. May, J. Andrade Dental Anxiety
• £246,061 LeverhumeTrust (9/2014-8/2017) to May, J (PI), Redding, E. (Trinity –Laban, CI)& Whatley, S. (Coventry), CI) In the dancer’s mind. Creativity, Noveltyand the Imagination’ RPG-2014-010
• £899,696 EPSRC(09/12 to 08/15) to Pahl, S., Wilde,P., May, J. and 3 others eViz - Energy Visualisation for CarbonReduction (80% fEC; total project cost including Bath, Newcastle and Birmingham£1.7M)
• £2500: Vice Chancellor's Community Research Awards (01/08-30/09/09) J. May, J. Andrade
  Prevalence and effects of self-harm, attempted suicide and suicide in young people in the Plymouth area
  in association with The Samaritans
• £266000: Australian NHMRC (01/07 to 12/09) D. Kavanagh et al
  Randomised controlled trial of a new intervention for alcohol craving:
  Associate Investigator on Australian grant worth AUS$665.25 to the University of Queensland
• £ 48,654 - ESRC (01/07 to 12/09) Jon May, J. Andrade & H. Batey
  Intrusive Thoughts and Mindfulness in Deliberate Self Harm:
  An Open Competition +3 Studentship
• £ 42,494 - ESRC (11/05 to 2/07) Jon May, J. Andrade
  Effects of thought acceptance, diversion and suppression on food craving. :
  Our Elaborated Intrusion Theory predicts that increased intrusions will cause more frequent and intense levels of desire and increased relapse. We are comparing effects on food craving and intrusions of thought suppression and two alternatives: Mindfulness-based acceptance and thought diversion.
• £ 60,340 - ESRC (10/05 to 9/09) Jon May, J. Andrade & J. Blackburn
  Cognitive Aspects of Craving in Eating Disorders:
  An Open Competition 1+3 Studentship
• £ 47,505 - ESRC (10/05 to 9/08) Jon May, J. Andrade & L.-M. Berry
  Coping With Intrusive Thoughts Using Mindfulness Training:
  An Open Competition +3 Studentship
• £ 239,676 - EPSRC 4/05 to 3/08 Jon May (PI)
  FilmICS: Designing dynamic displays with Supportive Evaluation Techniques. : Computer interfaces are becoming more film like, but are hard for people to understand, whereas people understand what happens in real films quite easily. This project seeks to understand the principles used to edit film sequences, to aid the design of computer interfaces
• £ 39,500 - ESRC (1/02 to 12/02) Jon May & M Bühner
  The influence of delay on human casual reasoning:
  Showed that knowledge and experience could bridge delays between cause and effect, contradicting earlier research which argued that a delay prevents people from inferring any relationship.
• £ 186,446 - EPSRC (1/01to 10/04) Jon May (PI)
  TICKS – Modelling Multiple and Collaborative Work Tasks:
  In collaboration with the University of Bath, this examined the application of Task Analysis to multiple, collaborative tasks. It combined an existing cognitive modelling approach, ICS, with the Task Analysis method, TKS.
• £ 44,577 - EPSRC (10/99 to 9/00) Jon May (PI)
  Modelling the Perception and Comprehension of Dynamic Displays:
  Demonstrated that film making techniques for guiding the viewers’ gaze around the screen followed principles derived from cognitive theory, and justified their application in interface design.
• £ 60,000 - BT: (2/98-1/01) Jon May (PI)
  MultICS2: : A studentship continuing the work begun in MultICS.
• £ 131,231 - EU T&MR (1/98 to 12/02) Jon May (8 other sites funded)
  TACIT: Theory and Application of Continuous Interaction technologies:
  A Training & Mobility of Researchers network, involving nine sites across Europe. Within this project we addressed the role of temporal contiguity on human causal inference
• £ 67,000 - EPSRC (10/97 to 9/99) Jon May (PI)
  Automating the approximate modelling of cognitive functio: n
  Developed an automated modeller of cognitive function in the domains of perception, memory and attention, by building an implementation of a particular unified model of cognition, Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS)
• £ 58,500 - BT: 2/97 to 2/98
  Jon May (PI), PJ Barnard, D Duke
  MultICS: Sensations in multiple modalities need somehow to be combined if we are to perceive them as being caused by a single event. This project examined the role of knowledge, expectation and task context