Dr Simon Farrell

Summary

My research involves experiments on human beings guided by computational models. Research areas include working memory and episodic memory (particularly for order and time); modelling of decision making; categorisation; investigation and analysis of serial correlations (1/f noise) in human cognition; and model selection issues.

Recent and current grants

• ESRC grant: Modeling working memory (2008-2011; fEC cost £673,892). Awarded to Oberauer (PI),Farrell and Jarrold.
• Australian Research Council Linkage International Grant (2008-2011: approx £9500). Awardedto Lewandowsky (PI), Brown, Oberauer & Farrell.
• ESRC grant: Positional access andgrouping in short-term memory(2007-2010; award = £249003).Awarded to Farrell (PI).
• Wellcome Trust grant: Modelling sequential effectsin saccadic choice (2006-2009; approx £101 477 for directly incurred costs;fEC total cost = £377 143). Awarded to Farrell (PI), Ludwig, Gilchrist, andCarpenter.
• ESRC grant: Encoding and retrieval processesin short-term memory: The role of similarity (2006-2007; approx £40,000).Awarded to Farrell (PI) and Oberauer.

Biography

I completed a PhD at the University of Western Australia (under the supervision of Stephan Lewandowsky) before spending two years in the Ratcliff lab at Northwestern University. I moved to Bristol as a lecturer in 2003. My past and present collaborators include Steve Lewandowsky, Klaus Oberauer, Chris Jarrold, Casimir Ludwig, Iain Gilchrist, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers and Roger Ratcliff.

Teaching

I currently teach about the psychology of science (3rd year), and statistics (MSc). In previous years I have also taught memory (2nd year), cognitive modelling (3rd year), neuropsychology (MSc), and psychology of language (MSc).

PHD students supervised

• Tim Jones
• Vicky Edkins

Keywords

• Connectionist modelling
• Episodic memory
• Working memory
• Decision making
• Computational modelling

Expertise

My research involves the use of quantitative models to guide investigation of the processes of learning, retrieval, and performance in human cognition. One stream focussing on learning and retrieval considers memory on the order of seconds, particularly how sequences of events or stimuli are encoded and retrieved in the short term. I've recently been using connectionist and random sampling models to compare theories in this area. I am also interested in using accumulator models of choice behaviour to model relations between saccades in saccadic decision-making.

Memberships

Organisations

School of Experimental Psychology

Other sites

• Neuroscience

Experimental Psychology staff

• Experimental Psychology academic staff

Research themes

• Cognitive Processes
• Decision-making and Rationality

Research groups

• Memory Group
• Decision-making in an Unstable World

Links

•   home page

Selected publications

• Farrell, S & Lelièvre, A 2009, ‘End anchoring in short-term order memory ’. Journal of Memory and Language, vol 60., pp. 209 - 227

Read more >

Recent publications

• Ludwig, C, Farrell, S, Ellis, L, Hardwicke, T & Gilchrist, I 2012, ‘Context-gated statistical learning and its role in visual-saccadic decisions’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol 141., pp. 150 - 169
• Oberauer, K, Farrell, S, Jarrold, C, Pasiecznik, K & Greaves, M 2012, ‘Interference between maintenance and processing in working memory: The effect of item-distractor similarity in complex span’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, vol 38., pp. 665 - 685
• Lewandowsky, S, Ecker, U, Farrell, S & Brown, G 2012, ‘Models of cognition and constraints from neuroscience: A case study involving consolidation’. Australian Journal of Psychology, vol 64., pp. 37 - 45
• Wagenmakers, E, Mass, HVD & Farrell, S 2012, ‘Abstract concepts require concrete models: Why cognitive scientists have not yet ebraced nonlinearly-coupled, dynamical, self-organized critical, synergistic, scale-free, equisitely context-sensitive, interaction-dominant, multifractal, interdependant, brain-body-niche systems’. Topics in Cognitive Science, vol 4., pp. 87 - 93
• Oberauer, K, Lewandowsky, S, Farrell, S, Jarrold, C & Greaves, M 2012, ‘Modeling working memory: An interference model of complex span’. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
• Farrell, S, Wise, V & Lelievre, A 2011, ‘Relations between timing, position and grouping in short-term memory’. Memory & Cognition, vol 39., pp. 573 - 587
• Farrell, S 2011, ‘Social influence benefits the wisdom of individuals in the crowd’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol 108., pp. E625 - E625
• Farrell, S, Ludwig, C, Ellis, L & Gilchrist, I 2010, ‘The influence of environmental statistics on inhibition of saccadic return’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 107., pp. 929 - 934
• Farrell, S 2010, ‘Dissociating Conditional Recency in Immediate and Delayed Free Recall: A Challenge for Unitary Models of Recency ’. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, vol 36., pp. 324 - 347

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system