- A212, Portland Square, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA
- +44 1752 584803
- T.Hollins@plymouth.ac.uk

Profiles
Professor Tim Hollins
Professor of Experimental Psychology
School of Psychology (Faculty of Health)
- Memory
- Eye witness memory
- Metacognition
- Long term memory
Email publicrelations@plymouth.ac.uk to enquire.
Biography
Biography
Professor of Experimental Psychology
Qualifications
B.Sc. (Hons.) Psychology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1986.
PhD. Psychology, University of Manchester, 1989
Senior Fellow of the HEA, 2016
Professional membership
Member of the Experimental Psychology Society (EPS).
Member of Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC)
Roles on external bodies
Associate Editor: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied (2014- 2017)
Honorary Treasurer, Experimental Psychology Society (2012-2016)
Member of Governing Board of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC) (2008-2016).
Key publications
Teaching
Teaching
Teaching interests
I currently teach on the following modules (courses in brackets were not taught this year because of a sabbatical)
Stage 0: PSYC003: Psychological influences on health and behaviour
Stage 1: (PSYC411 Learning and Memory)
Stage 4: PSYC603: (Final year option module on Eyewitness memory)
PSYC605: BSc Research project supervision
PSYC605: Workshops
Stage 5: PSYC754: Academic writing skills package
PSYC756: Research Communication skills
PSYC757: MSc Research project supervision
Staff serving as external examiners
- External examiner for BSc. Psychology, University of Warwick, 2013-2017
- External examiner for BSc. Psychology, University of Reading, 2005-2008.
- External examiner for B.A. / B.Sc. Psychology at the University of Essex, 2002-2005.
- External examiner for M.Sc. Psychology, University of Essex, 2002-2005.
- I have acted as external examiner for a number of Postgraduate Research Degrees (M. Phil., M.Sc., Ph.D.) at different Universities around the U.K., Europe and in Australia.
Research
Research
Research interests
My research interest is in the areas of long-term memory and metacognition, with both theoretical and applied interests. This has led me to research such things as the accuracy of confidence judgements in memory, recollective experience, source memory judgements, face-recognition, eyewitness memory, feeling of knowing and tip-of-the-tongue states. Since my PhD, I have also retained an interest in cognitive aging.
Other research
2021
1. Seabrooke, T., Mitchell, C., Wills, A., Inkster, A. & Hollins, T. J. (2021). Retrieval competition in the pretesting effect. Paper presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, Kent, July.
2. Hollins, T. J., Seabrooke, T., Mitchell, C., & Inkster, A. (2021). Is the pre-testing effect driven by curiosity. Poster presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, Kent, July.
3. Hollins, T. J., Seabrooke, T., Inkster, A., & Mitchell, C. (2021). Is the pre-testing effect driven by increased curiosity. Poster presented at vSARMAC, (online conference), July.
2020
4. Ball, A., Jones, P., & Hollins, T. J. (2020). Exploring the motivational factors behind stopping learning too early. Poster presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, London, January.
5. Hendry, S., Verde, M. & Hollins. T. J. (2020). Assessing the contribution of meaningfulness in study materials to the testing effect. Poster presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, London, January.
6. Hollins, T. J., Seabrooke, T., Mitchell, C., Wills, A. & Inkster, A. (2020). The role of retrieval competition on the magnitude of the pretesting effect. Paper presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, Canterbury, Kent, April.
7. Randle, J., Hollins, T. J. & Verde, M. (2020). Joint contributions of constrained search and late monitoring to recall accuracy. Paper presented at the Experimental Psychology Society Meeting, London, January.
2019
8. Almubark, B., Cattani, A., Hollins, T. J. & Floccia, C. (2019). Development and Validation of the Plymouth Saudi Memory Test (PSMT) for the Arabic speaking population with acquired brain injury. Poster presented at the 16th NR-SIG-WFNR Conference, Granada, Spain, June
9. Seabrooke, T., Hollins, T. J., Wills, A. & Mitchell, C. (2019). Testing your memory: Current research on the forward testing effect and the benefits of unsuccessful retrieval. Paper presented at the TEAP conference, London, April.
10. Lange, N., Berry, C. J. & Hollins, T. J. (2019). The association of repetition priming and source memory is not driven by recognition memory. Paper presented at the TEAP conference, London, April.
2018
11. Ball, A., Jones, P. & Hollins, T. J. (2018). Metacognitive decisions in learning new material. Poster presented at the Experimental Psychology Society, Leicester, April.
12. Seabrooke, T., Hollins, T. J., Wills, A. & Mitchell, C. (2018). Learning from total failure: Errorful generation improves memory for cues and targets, but not for their association. Paper presented at the Experimental Psychology Society, Leicester, April.
2017
13. Lange, N. & Hollins, T. J. (2017). Simulating performance in unconscious plagiarism. Poster presented at Cognitive Science, London, July.
14. Rainsford, M., Palmer, M., Hollins, T. J., Sauer, J., Beeton, N. & Paine, G. (2017). Unconscious plagiarism in music: exposure increases plagiarism in music composition. European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. Ghent, August.
Research degrees awarded to supervised students
I have supervised the following students to higher degrees.
1997 Carolyn Edwards (Ph.D.)
1998 Tara Hollins (Ph.D.) Chris Moulin (Ph.D.)
2000 Alexa Morcom (Ph.D.) Sue Heatherley (M.Sc.)
2002 Leigh Riby (Ph.D.)
2003 Louise Farbus (Ph.D.)
2004 Hassina Carder (Ph.D.)
2006 Louisa-Jayne Stark (Ph.D.) Nicola Weston (Ph.D.) Kirsten Burghardt (Ph.D.)
2016 Laura Koenig (Ph.D.) Nicholas Lange (Ph.D.)
2018 Bazah Almubark (Ph.D.) Siew Tan (Ph.D)
2019 Pamela Rae (Ph.D,)
2021 Abbie Ball (Ph.D) Sarah Hendry (Ph.D).
Grants & contracts
Total career grant income to date (excluding PhD scholarships), approximately £1.8M.
Grants awarded
2016
Learning from total failure: Why do impossible tests boost learning? (PI, with Chris Mitchell and Andy Wills, Plymouth). Awarded by ESRC £285K (ES/N018702/1)
2010
Testing alternate accounts of unconscious plagiarism. (P.I. with Ian Dennis). Awarded by ESRC £238K. (RES-062-23-2766).
2009
Construal, Processing Style, and Memory for Social Events. (C. I. with Natalie Wyer and Sabine Pahl). Awarded by ESRC £240K. (RES-062-23-1899)
2008
Unconscious plagiarism in younger and older adults. £1400. Undergraduate Research Bursary from The Nuffield Foundation (URB/35805).
2007
Improving eyewitness identification accuracy using free-report lineups (C. I. with Nathan Weber, Flinders University). Australian Research Council, AUS$207K (c. £92K) (DP087890)
Mental Control and the Self: Ironic Effects of Thought Suppression on the Perception, Behaviour, and Memory of the Self. (C.I. with Natalie Wyer and Giuliana Mazzoni). £130K awarded by ESRC. (R000-23-0622)
2006
Monitoring, control and face recognition memory in older and younger adults. (C. I. with Dr Nathan Weber, Flinders University). £14K awarded by the British Academy for a visiting fellowship for Nathan Weber.
The role of working memory in encoding into long-term memory. £117K for 3-year fellowship awarded by Great Western Research, (C. I. with Prof Klaus Oberauer, University of Bristol.)
Repetition priming in single and mixed task environments. (C. I. with Dr Ian Dennis). £80K awarded by the ESRC (R000222109)
2005
Rejection mechanisms in recognition memory. (C. I. with Dr Phil Higham, University of Southampton). £93K awarded by the ESRC. (R000-23-1375)
Exploring task-specific repetition priming and the response congruence effect (C. I. with Dr Ian Dennis). £45K awarded by ESRC (R000-22-1191).
Social and cognitive explanations of the own age bias in face recognition. (P. I. with Dr Natalie Wyer) £56K awarded by The Leverhulme Trust. (F/00 568).
The effects of elaboration on unconscious plagiarism (P. I. with Louisa Stark). £46K awarded by the ESRC. (R000221647).
2004
Royal Society Conference Award, for attendance at SARMAC VI in Wellington NZ, £1.7K.
The cognitive neuroscience of aging. (P. I. with Prof Mike Denham) £125K, from Research Councils UK for a 5-year Academic Fellowship Award.
2003
Ageing, inhibition and attentional control. (C. I. with Dr Pilar Andres & Dr Louise Phillips). £40K awarded by ESRC. (R000220237)
Alternate move choice and processing demands in executive tasks (C. I. with Hassina Carder & Dr Simon Handley). £43K awarded by ESRC. (R000220607).
2002
An associative model of retrieval induced forgetting. £83K awarded by the BBSRC
(321/S17781).
Investigating the relationship between simulated depth, cognitive function and metacognitive awareness. £20K awarded by Health and Safety Executive. (C. I. With Dr P. Bryson, Ms J. Pimlott and Ms S. Harding of DDRC).
2001
Monitoring the source of memories: Source memory, false memories and unconscious plagiarism. (C.I. Aus$10K, with Prof M. Carroll).
2000
Investigating retrieval inhibition. £12K awarded by The Leverhulme Trust (RFG/2/2000/237).
1998
Retrieval inhibition in normal and pathological aging (P.I. with Prof M. Conway & Dr R. Jones). (R000222681) £40K awarded by ESRC.
1997
Designing library software systems with older adults in mind. (P. I. with Dr J. Noyes). Prize competition worth £50K, including studentship, funded by Research into Ageing / AgeNet.
1996
Parallels between frontal lobe deficits and cognitive aging in a realistic context. £72K awarded by the Medical Research Council.
Developing implicit measures of advertising effectiveness. £61K awarded by the ESRC ROPA scheme (R022250018).
Investigating recollective experience in older adults. £1.3K awarded by the Nuffield Foundation
Continuation of: Measuring advertising effectiveness with implicit memory measures. £2K awarded by the Financial Times plc.
1994
Measuring advertising effectiveness with implicit memory measures. £24K from Financial Times plc.
1993
Investigating the confidence - accuracy relation in eyewitness and semantic memory. £59K awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council. (R000234838).
1992
Does age differentially affect access to knowledge about memory contents and complete retrieval (P. I. with Pat Rabbitt). £28K awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council. (R000233736)
Publications
Publications
Key publications
Key publications are highlighted
JournalsPersonal
Personal
Conferences organised
ESRC Workshop on Cognitive Aging, Bristol, 6th September, 1995.
British Psychological Society Cognitive Section XII Annual Conference, Bristol, September 7th-9th, 1995.
British Psychological Society Cognitive Section XIV Annual Conference, Bristol, September 4th-6th, 1997 (Joint with Dr Judi Ellis).
British Psychological Society Cognitive Section XV Annual Conference, Bristol, September 2nd-4th, 1998 (Joint with Dr Geoff Ward).
British Psychological Society Seminar Series “Models of age related change in memory”, Worcester, July 1998.
Symposium “Memory Confidence: bases, accuracy and performance consequences” at 3rd International Conference on Memory, Valencia, July 2001.
Symposium “Applied Metacognition”, held at SARMAC, Aberdeen, July 2003.
Symposium on Applied aspects of face recognition, the Annual BPS Cognitive Section Conference, Leeds, September 2004.
Symposium on Source memory, Summer meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society, Plymouth, July 2006.
Additional information
In October 2014 I changed my name from Tim Perfect to Tim Hollins.
Links
My Google Citations page is here: My google citations
My ResearchGate page is here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Timothy_Hollins
Experimental Psychology Society: https://eps.ac.uk/