Dr Hayley Ness

Professional biography

I am currently an Associate Director for Student Support, as well as a Senior Lecturer in Psychology. I have spent over 20 years as an Applied Cognitive Psychologist, with specialisms in face recognition and eyewitness memory. More recently, I have spent several years retraining as an integrative relational counsellor, working with both individuals and couples. 

Research interests

My current research interests span both counselling and cognitive psychology. I am currently involved in a collaborative project to validate a clinical tool which has been developed to measure underlying issues in couples who attend counselling. The Relationship Assessment Tool consists of 3 sections; the first explores different areas of the relationship, the second relates to clients with children, and the third is a qualitative summary of the relationship. Through empowering clients to become more aware of their own and others’ thought processes, the RAT can evidence any changes in mentalisation. Through validating this tool, we hope to provide a time-efficient and cost-effective way of identifying underlying issues in couples and offer an evidence-based measure of therapeutic progress.

I am also involved in a collaborative project to examine invisible learning within the household. The main aim is to make the invisible, visible and to illuminate the ‘mundane’ tasks that people engage with on a daily basis, by highlighting the complex cognitive processes that underlie everyday activity. We want to take an inclusive, empowering approach to learning that enables us to gain a picture of what is happening across the country and in differing groups of people, as well enabling the invisible learning that people are already engaging with to become recognised and visible.

My early research expertise is primarily in the area of eyewitness memory for faces, although I also have wider interests in face processing, eyewitness memory and the use of visual evidence in court. My PhD focused on improving facial composites using the PROfit system and different methods such as morphing composites from multiple witnesses, constructing composites in different views and examining verbal descriptions were examined. I developed a strong interest in individual differences  - why do some witnesses construct better composites than others? This interest led to an ERP study to examine the perceptual and cognitive processes during facial composite construction.

I am a member of the Harm & Evidence Research Collaborative (HERC), which is a unique multi-disciplinary and cross-faculty research group, drawing together researchers in social policy, criminology, psychology, history, sociology, youth justice and policing.  Within the School of Psychology and Counselling's Open Psychology Research Centre https://www.open.ac.uk/centres/psychology/ I am a member of both the Forensic Cognition Research Group and PHeW, the Psychology of Health & Wellbeing Group.I am an accredited member of COSCA and on the Board of AARC, a counselling organisation based in the West of Scotland. 

Teaching interests

Since joining the university in 2009 I have been a member of the presentation and production teams for the following modules:

• Chair of Investigating Psychology 1 (DE100B)
• Forensic psychology: crime, offenders and policing (D872)
• Forensic psychology: witnesses, experts and evidence on trial (D873)
• Exploring Psychology: Online Project (DZX222)
• Chair of Cognitive Psychology (DD303)
• Co-chair of production: Investigating Psychology 3 (DE300)
• Principles of social and psychological inquiry (DD801)
• Evaluating psychology: research and practice (DD803)

Impact and engagement

In my role as an Associate Director/ Staff Tutor based in Scotland, I am engaged in lots of external activity. Current projects include Scottish Student Community Hubs in Psychology; a pilot project to develop student led, student directed psychology groups;  The CuBE project: OU Hubs in under-used community libraries in collaboration with Derek Goldman.