Professor Sheila Cunningham

Research grants include:

2018: CI on £8,500 grant awarded by the Carnegie Trust

2018-2021: CI on £75,000 PhD studentship awarded by Abertay University's R-Lincs program

2017-2020: CI on £363,321 grant awarded by the ESRC

2017-2018: CI on £7,490 grant awarded by the Carnegie Trust

2015-2018: PI on £106,396 grant awarded by the Leverhulme Trust

2014-2015: PI on £3,500 workshop grant awarded by the Experimental Psychology Society

2009-2012: Named RF on 791,549€ awarded by the European Research Council

Esteem

I peer review manuscripts for international journals including Consciousness and Cognition, Developmental Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, and Memory. I am currently editing a special issue on self-processing biases for the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

I am a member of the following academic societies:

• Experimental Psychology Society
• Association for Psychological Science
• European Association of Social Psychology
• Self & Identity

ACADEMIC CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Cunningham, S. J., Hutchison, J., & Ross, J. Development of incidental and explicit self-reference effects reveals distinct cognitive mechanisms. BPS Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Liverpool, Sept. 2018.

Ross, J., Hutchison, J., & Cunningham, S. J., The me in memory: Using the self-reference effect to measure development in the
autobiographical self. BPS Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Liverpool, Sept. 2018.

Ahmed, Z., Cunningham, S. J., Ross, J. & Rhodes, S. Exploring the self-reference effect in ADHD. BPS Developmental Section Annual Conference, Liverpool, Sept. 2018.

Ross, J., Hutchison, J., & Cunningham, S. J.,Growing me: The development of the self-reference effect across childhood. BPS Developmental Section Annual Conference, Liverpool, Sept. 2018.

Cunningham, S. J., Hutchison, J., Ross, J. & Martin, D. Self-biases in recall: Applying ownership effects in education. BPS Developmental Section Annual Conference, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sept. 2017.

Ross, J., Hutchison, J., & Cunningham, S. J. Self-processing biases in event memory: Implications for the development of self-awareness. BPS Developmental Section Annual Conference, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sept. 2017.

Cunningham, S. J., Hutchison, J., & Martin, D. The ownership effect in memory: applications for learning. International Convention on Psychological Science, Vienna, March 2017.

Hutchison, J. Cunningham, S. J., & Ross, J. The me in memory: Using self-reference effects to predict autobiographical memory development. BPS Cognitive Section Annual Conference, Barcelona, Sept. 2016.

Gillespie-Smith, K., Branigan, H., Ballantyne, C., Turk, D. J., & Cunningham, S. J. Level of functioning in Autism associated with self-processing ability: Evidence from an ownership paradigm. BPS Developmental Section Annual Conference, Belfast, Sept. 2016.

Gillespie-Smith, K., Ballantyne, C., Turk, D. J., & Cunningham, S. J. Children with autism spectrum disorder do show self-processing biases: Evidence from an ownership paradigm. Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society, Oxford, July 2016.

Martin, D., Swainson, R., Slessor, G., Hutchison, J., & Cunningham, S. J. The simultaneous extraction of emotion and social categories from unfamiliar faces. Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society, Oxford, July 2016.

Cunningham, S. J. Applying self-processing biases in an educational context. Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society, Durham, April 2016.

Cunningham, S. J. & Ferguson, A. The effects of self-referencing on children’s mathematical processing. BPS Developmental Section Annual Conference, Manchester, September 2015.

Cunningham, S. J. & Turk, D. J. The selfish learner: advantages of applying a self-referential approach to children's learning. Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, WA, April 2013.

Cunningham, S. J. Exploring incidental self-reference effects in memory. International Conference on Memory (ICOM) 5, York, August 2011.

Cunningham, S. J. & Turk, D. J. Applying the self in learning. Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition XI, New York, June 2011.

Cunningham, S.J. The self-reference effect on memory in early childhood. Society for Research in Child Development, Montreal, Canada, April 2011.

Cunningham, S. J. A world of my own: The emergence of ownership effects in early childhood. 1st joint conference of EPS and SEPEX, Granada, Spain, April 2010.

Cunningham, S. J. It's mine! Children's memory bias for self-owned items. BPS Developmental Section Annual Conference, Nottingham, UK, September 2009.

Cunningham, S. J. Turk, D. J. & Macrae, C. N. Remember your own: The development of self-biases in early childhood. 15th General Meeting of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology, Opatija, Croatia, June 2008.

Cunningham, S. J. Turk, D. J. & Macrae, C. N. Each to his own: Self-biases in memory for owned objects. 8th Annual Society for Personality and Social Psychology Conference, Memphis, Tennessee, January 2007.

Cunningham, S. J., Milne, A. B. & Crawford, J. R. Alcohol and the control of stereotyping behaviour. Conference of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, Boston, Massachusetts, September 2003.

Cunningham, S. J. & Milne, A. B. The consumption of executive resources during stereotype suppression. Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition V, Aberdeen, July 2003.

Cunningham, S. J. & Milne, A. B. Stereotype suppression: Ironic effects on memory and executive resource consumption. Annual Conference of the British Psychological Society, Bournemouth, March 2003.

McGeorge, P., Milne, A. B., Cunningham, S.J & Rutland, A. Implicit attitudes amongst Scots: The effect of varying the comparison group. Meeting of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology, San Sebastian, Spain, June 2002.

Outreach

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

I have been involved in a number of scientific public engagement sessions, including the British Science Festival and Dundee Science Festival ("I heard it on the Grapevine: The social evolution of information") and Cafe Science Dundee ("Pink for girls and blue for boys? The colour of gender stereotypes").

SCHOOL OUTREACH

I work in school outreach programmes, delivering talks to children in primary and secondary schools on psychology topics such as stereotyping and brain development.

We are currently developing our programme of CPD workshops for teachers, aimed at increasing awareness of the application of self-processing biases in the classroom (see www.selflab.co.uk).