Dr Emma Roberts

Research interests

I completed by PhD research at the University of Staffordshire, exploring the impact of attention to emotional material using eyetracking and how this visual attention mediated false memory formation when exposed to misinformation. I am currently working on a project to explore one of the findings from my PhD looking at the differences in visual attention patterns to sad emotional content and how this might impact memory when combined with individual differences such as age, grief experience and empathy level.

I am also working with Sharon Xuereb, a colleague here at the OU, to investigate how differently valanced media exposure can impact perceptions of benefit and threat for refugees and asylum seekers to the UK. We are just finishing data collection for a two-part study with the aim of publishing later this year.

I am a member of the Forensic and Cognition Research Group here at the OU and also part of the Talking About Memory and Cognition (TARMAC) group, which is UK wide.

Teaching interests

I am currently teaching on the Master of Psychology Conversion degree at the OU, supervising a range of dissertation projects across experimental, text based and survey methods. I have taught on a variety of modules for the OU covering second- and third-year undergraduate psychology modules and first year statistics for the maths department. I enjoy teaching research methods and being able to support and encourage our students in their developing psychology careers.

Job role

My job role is that of a Regional Academic and Psychology Lecturer which means that I do not work on campus in Milton Keynes but instead work at home, visiting campus several times a year. My role has several elements to it, but the main two parts are regional and national management of modules in psychology and counselling, and line management of part of our associate lecturer tutor team. I look after day to day running of DE200: Investigating psychology 2, and DD210: Living psychology: from the everyday to the extraordinary, in Wales. DE300: Investigating psychology 3 experimental students, and I am part of the UK wide module teams for masters modules DD802: Investigating forensic psychology, and DD803: Evaluating psychology: research and practice.