Name: Kristy Lascelles
Position: lecturer
Qualifications:
BSc. (Hons) Psychology, The University of York
D.Phil. Psychology, University of Sussex
PGCTHE, The University of Northampton
Department: Behavioural Sciences
Room: FSS10
Tel. Contact: 662-2002 x 3849
E-mail: Kristy.lascelles@sta.uwi.edu
Courses taught:
PSYC2016:
PSYC2003:
PSYC2015:
PSYC3025:
PSYC7004:
Sensation & Perception
Physiological Psychology
Introduction to Psychology
Research Projects in Psychology
Contemporary Issues in Cognitive Psychology
Research interests:
Evaluative conditioning (EC)
Using conditioning techniques, pictures rated as neutral are paired with stimuli
rated as liked or disliked. Following conditioning, stimuli paired with liked pictures
become more liked and stimuli paired with disliked pictures become more disliked.
EC as a form of associative learning is evasive and its boundary conditions are
poorly understood.
Evaluative conditioning & eating disorders
Experiments pairing food with disliked thin or obese body-shapes, or neutral/liked
normal body-shapes predict that food paired with obese or thin body-shapes would
become more disliked. However, only food paired with obese body-shapes becomes
more disliked. This is thought to reflect cognitive biases where food is not expected
to be paired with thin body-shapes. These mechanisms may play a role in the
maintenance and aetiology of eating disorders.
Cognitive Bias and Appearance
Cognitive biases can influence our behaviour and decision making. This research
attempts to further our understanding of cognitive biases surrounding appearance.
This research ranges from the influences of mass media and culture on beauty
ideals, to appearance related behaviour (e.g. exercise, eating, skin bleaching etc.)
and appearance related issues in health (e.g. eating disorders, breast cancer and
mastectomy etc.).
Argument mapping (AM)
AM is a visual tool that maps the logical structure of arguments (e.g. the
relationships between premises and conclusions).
Argument mapping & critical thinking
Training with AM computer software dramatically improves students’ critical
thinking skills. However, educators experience a challenge when attempting to
improve critical thinking using cheaper and less intensive versions of AM.
Cognition & argument mapping
Experimental evidence indicates that AM facilitates conditional reasoning in complex
arguments, when compared to prose or lists. Research is necessary to determine
what other aspects of critical thinking are benefitted by AM and the cognitive
mechanisms involved.
Publications:
Journal Publications
Lascelles, K.R.R. (2008). Review: Griet Vandermassen: Who's Afraid of Charles
Darwin? Debating Feminism and Evolutionary Theory. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield, Feminism & Psychology, 18, 289-291.
Field, A. P., Lascelles, K. R. R., Lester, K. J., Askew, C. & Davey, G. C. L. (2008).
Evaluative conditioning: missing, presumed dead. Netherlands Journal of
Psychology, 64 (2), 46–64.
Lascelles, K.R.R., & Davey, G.C.L. (2006). Successful differential evaluative
conditioning using the picture-picture paradigm: associative learning using
simultaneous and trace conditioning procedures. Quarterly Journal of Experimental
Psychology B, 59, 482-492.
Lascelles, K.R.R., Field, A.P., & Davey, G.C.L. (2003). Using food and body shapes
as UCSs: a putative role for associative learning in the development of eating
disorders. Behaviour Therapy, 34, 213-235.
Professional Involvement:
 GBR: British Psychological Society
 Fellow: Higher Education Academy, UK