Laura Wakeford

Contact Details:
Email: Laura Wakeford

Postal Address:
School of Psychology
The University of Dundee
Dundee
DD1 4HN
Scotland, UK

PhD Student
Supervisor Dr Wayne Murray

Research Interests

My research focuses on the relationship between fixation location and attention during silent reading; specifically, whether word recognition proceeds in a serial or parallel fashion. Despite early theories suggesting a tight coupling between fixation location and attention (Just and Carpenter, 1980), recent findings suggest that under some circumstances, the two can be dissociated. While some of these dissociations are not inconsistent with the serial perspective (for example, the most prominent model of the serial variety - E-Z Reader model; Reichle, Rayner & Pollatsek 2003 - has successfully evolved to account for many of these findings), some effects do indicate that, under some conditions, attention can be distributed to multiple words simultaneously as predicted by parallel models such as SWIFT (Engbert, Longtin & Kliegl, 2002). It is these effects, namely, parafoveal-on-foveal effects and word n+2 preview benefit that are the focus of my research.

The aims of my PhD research are twofold. First, due to the inconsistent nature of parafoveal-on-foveal effects and word n+2 preview benefit, I aim to further investigate the conditions under which they optimally occur, thus highlighting why some studies fail to uncover significant effects. Various lines of investigation will be undertaken, each of which will manipulate parafoveal preview under different conditions, including the manipulation of sentence structure, type of invalid preview and varying the reading ability of participants. The second aim of my research is to test the range over which word n+2 preview benefits can occur. To date, these effects have only been found when the word directly to the right of fixation (word n+1) contains a three-letter word. Uncovering these effects when word n+1 contains a four-letter (or longer) word will greatly reduce the possibility that these effects are the product of secondary attention shifts as suggested by the architects of the E-Z Reader model.

Technologies and Statistical Methods

The majority of my research will be conducted using the Dr Bouis Eye Tracker, however, some experiments will also be run using DMDX and the Eyelink 1000. Statistical procedures employed will involve fitting standard linear models to the data (e.g. ANOVAs), in addition to using linear mixed effects modelling (LME). Statistical programmes such as SPSS and R will be used to this end.

PhD Funding

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) 1+3 Studentship (ES/H018824/1).
Grindley Grant for Conference Attendance award by the Experimental Psychological Society.

Conference Paper and Poster Presentations

Murray, W.S., Wakeford, L.J., & Vladeanu, M. (2008). Just one word at a time? 'MACCS ForsterFest',
Macquarie University, Sydney, June 2008.

Murray, W.S., Wakeford, L.J., & Vladeanu, M. (2008). Just one word at a time? Word n+2 preview effects
revisited. 49th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Chicago, November 2008.

Murray, W.S., Wakeford, L.J., & Vladeanu, M, Paul, S. (2010). As he read the professor believed the idea
that it was just listening was wrong. Workshop on serial and parallel processing in reading, Dundee, October, 2010.

Wakeford, L.J., & Murray, W.S. (2011). Breadth of attention, word length and word n+2 effects. Poster
presented at the 16th ECEM conference; Marseille, France, 2011, August.

Wakeford, L.J., & Murray, W.S. (2011). Can isolated word pairs be lexically processed in parallel?
Combining tachistoscopic presentation with same-different matching. Poster presented at the 17th AMLaP conference; Paris, France, 2011, September.

Qualifications

Master of Science (with distinction) in Psychological Research Methods University of Dundee (2010).

Master of Arts with Honours in Psychology: first class University of Dundee (2008).

Responsibilities

Psycholinguistics Research Assistant on a project funded by the ESRC (University of Dundee, part-time 2006-2010).
Second Year Marker (University of Dundee, 2008-2009).<,/p>

Prizes

Top Third Year Student (2006-2007).
Psychology Class Medal (2007-2008).
British Psychological Society Undergraduate Award (2007-2008).

Membership of Professional Bodies

British Psychological Society

Prizes

Top Third Year Student (2006-2007).
Psychology Class Medal (2007-2008).
British Psychological Society Undergraduate Award (2007-2008).

Courses/workshops attended

Project management in the real world (Generic Skills, University of Dundee, 2011)
Word for thesis writing (Generic Skills, University of Dundee, 2011).
Power point slide design (Generic Skills, University of Dundee, 2011).
Enhancing interview skills (Generic Skills, University of Dundee, 2011)
Preparing for posters (Generic Skills, University of Dundee, 2011)
Maximising impact at conferences (Generic Skills, University of Dundee, 2011)
Postgraduates who teach (PGWT) workshop (Stirling University, 2011).
Glasgow SUPPORT Workshop (Glasgow University, 2010)
Dundee SUPPORT workshop (University of Dundee, 2011)
St Andrews SUPPORT workshop (University of St Andrews, 2011)