Dr Peter Jones
Profiles

Dr Peter Jones

Associate Professor

School of Psychology (Faculty of Health)

Dr Peter Jones can be contacted through arrangement with our Press Office, to speak to the media on these areas of expertise.
  • Psychology
  • Experimental methods
  • Quantitative research
Biography

Biography

Associate Professor in Psychology

Programme Lead for Psychology undergraduate programmes

Qualifications

  • BSc (Hons.) Psychology, 2001, Cardiff University
  • PhD Psychology, 2005, Cardiff University
After completing my PhD, I spent seven years working as a postdoctoral researcher. I moved to the University of Nottingham in 2005 to carry out research examining mechanisms of learning, attention, and stimulus representation. I moved to Cardiff University at the beginning of 2012 to continue my research and started my first teaching post in 2013 at Staffordshire University before moving to Plymouth later in the year. I have been Programme Lead for undergraduate programmes since 2018. I became an Associate Professor in 2021.

Teaching

Teaching

Teaching interests

I give lectures on cognition in humans and other animals, as part of these modules:

PSYC411: Learning

PSYC513: Cognition and Biological Psychology

PSYC108PP: Psychobiological and Cognitive Aspects of Health Behaviour

I am the Module Lead for PSYC411.

Research

Research

Research interests

My research is concerned with basic psychological mechanisms, especially those related to learning. I am particularly interested in causal learning, and how well existing computational models of learning can account for behaviour. I am also interested in everyday phenomena that are governed by these fundamental processes, and I have published work on topics ranging from navigation to the acquisition of food preferences. I am also interested in ADHD, and especially in how it affects learning and attention.

Research degrees awarded to supervised students

Completed PhDs as Director of Studies:

  • Tara Zaksaite (2017)
  • Stuart Spicer (2020)
  • Abbie Ball (2020)

Publications

Publications

Key publications

Key publications are highlighted

Journals
Articles
Spicer S, Mitchell C, Wills A, Blake K & Jones P (2022) 'Theory protection: do humans protect existing associative links?' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 48, (1) 1-16 , DOI Open access
Robinson J, Jones PM & Whitt EJ (2021) 'Excitotoxic lesions of the perirhinal cortex leave intact rats’ gustatory sensory preconditioning' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology , DOI Open access
Jones PM, Mitchell C, Wills A & Spicer S (2021) 'Similarities and differences: Comment on Chan et al' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition , DOI Open access
Spicer SG, Wills AJ, Jones PM, Mitchell CJ & Dome L (2021) 'Representing uncertainty in the Rescorla-Wagner model: Blocking, the redundancy effect, and outcome base rate' Open Journal of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience 1, 14-21 Publisher Site , DOI Open access
Edmunds C, Inkster A, Jones P, Milton F & Wills A (2020) 'Absence of cross-modality analogical transfer in perceptual categorization' Open Journal of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience , DOI Open access
Spicer S, Mitchell C, Wills A & Jones P (2019) 'Theory protection in associative learning: humans maintain certain beliefs in a manner that violates prediction error' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition , DOI Open access
Zaksaite T & Jones P (2019) 'The redundancy effect is related to a lack of conditioned inhibition: Evidence from a task in which excitation and inhibition are symmetrical' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology , DOI Open access
Jones PM, Zaksaite T & Mitchell C (2019) 'Uncertainty and blocking in human causal learning' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 45, (1) , DOI Open access
Zaksaite T, Jones P & Mitchell C (2017) 'Creativity and Blocking: No Evidence for an Association' AVANT. The Journal of the Philosophical-Interdisciplinary Vanguard VIII, (Special) 135-146 , DOI Open access
Jones PM & Zaksaite T (2017) 'The redundancy effect in human causal learning: no evidence for changes in selective attention' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology , DOI Open access
Robinson J, Whitt EJ & Jones PM (2017) 'Familiarity-Based Stimulus Generalization of Conditioned Suppression' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition , DOI Open access
Dumont JR, Jones PM, Pearce JM & Kosaki Y (2015) 'Evidence for concrete but not abstract representation of length during spatial learning in rats' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition 1, (41) 91-104 , DOI Open access
Jones PM & Pearce JM (2014) 'The fate of redundant cues: Further analysis of the redundancy effect' Learning & Behavior (Online first publication) , DOI Open access
Kosaki, Y, Jones PM, Pearce & JM (2013) 'Asymmetry in the discrimination of length during spatial learning' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 4, (39) 342-356 , DOI
Jones PM, Haselgrove & M (2013) 'Blocking and associability change' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 3, (39) 249-258 , DOI
Haselgrove, M, Tam, Shu KE & Jones PM (2013) 'Enhanced unblocking from sustained post-trial surprise' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 4, (39) 311-322 , DOI
Jones PM, Haselgrove & M (2013) 'Overshadowing and associability change: examining the contribution of differential stimulus exposure' Learning and Behavior (41) 107-117 , DOI
Jones PM, Whitt EJ & Robinson J (2012) 'Excitotoxic perirhinal cortex lesions leave stimulus-specific habituation of suppression to lights intact' Behavioural Brain Research (229) 365-371 , DOI
Dwyer DM, Haselgrove M & Jones PM (2011) '"Cue interactions in flavor preference learning: A configural analysis": Correction to Dwyer et al. (2011)' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 37, (2) 188-188 , DOI
Jones PM & Haselgrove M (2011) 'Overshadowing and associability change' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes (37) 287-299 , DOI
Dwyer DM, Haselgrove M & Jones PM (2011) 'Cue interactions in flavor preference learning: a configural analysis' J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 37, (1) 41-57 , DOI
Haselgrove M, Esber GR, Pearce JM & Jones PM (2010) 'Two kinds of attention in Pavlovian conditioning: evidence for a hybrid model of learning' J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 36, (4) 456-470 , DOI
Robinson J, Whitt EJ, Horsley RR & Jones PM (2010) 'Familiarity-based stimulus generalization of conditioned suppression in rats is dependent on the perirhinal cortex' Behavioral Neuroscience (124) 587-599 , DOI
Jones PM, Pearce JM, Davies VJ, Good MA & McGregor A (2007) 'Impaired processing of local geometric features during navigation in a watermaze following hippocampal lesions in rats' Behavioural Neuroscience (12) 1258-1271 , DOI
McGregor A, Jones PM, Good MA & Pearce JM (2006) 'Further evidence that rats rely on local rather than global spatial information to locate a hidden goal: Reply to Cheng and Gallistel' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes (32) 314-321 , DOI
Pearce JM, Graham M, Good MA, Jones PM & McGreogr A (2006) 'Potentiation, overshadowing, and blocking of spatial learning based on the shape of the environment' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes (32) 201-214 , DOI
Pearce JM, Good MA, Jones PM & McGregor A (2004) 'Transfer of spatial behavior between different environments: Implications for theories of spatial learning and for the role of the hippocampus in spatial learning' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes (30) 135-147 , DOI
Conference Papers
Zaksaite T & Jones PM (2017) 'The Redundancy Effect in Human Causal Learning: Evidence Against a Comparator Theory Explanation' 3640-3645
Presentations and posters
Baxter R, Jones PM, Hall SD & Smith AD Baxter R, Jones PM, Hall SD & Smith AD 'Using immersive virtual environments to explore the blocking of geometric information during spatial learning' Author Site