jeremy tree
University of Wales, Swansea, UK, Health sciences, Faculty Member
- I am interested in human cognitive neuropsychologyedit
Research Interests:
Here we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on wellbeing among UK-based respondents (N = 133). We explore the extent to which variables across wellbeing domains (physical activity, gratitude, tragic optimism, social... more
Here we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on wellbeing among UK-based respondents (N = 133). We explore the extent to which variables across wellbeing domains (physical activity, gratitude, tragic optimism, social support, and nature connection) contribute to wellbeing according to our previously proposed GENIAL model. Wellbeing was significantly reduced compared to both retrospective pre-lockdown measures (d=0.55) and a Scottish sample from 2018 (d=0.39). The regression model, containing wellbeing-related variables along with age, sex, and subjective socioeconomic status, accounted for up to 50% of the variance in wellbeing. While all predictor variables were significantly associated with wellbeing in zero-order correlations, only gratitude and tragic optimism contributed significantly to the regression model. These findings provide the first evidence for the contribution of these positive psychological factors to wellbeing during the COVID-19 lockdown. Implicati...
Research Interests:
Approximately 800,000 people in the UK have Alzheimer’s disease (AD); approximately 5-20% of older people in the UK have mild cognitive impairment (MCI); and approximately one-quarter to one-half of older adults are believed to have... more
Approximately 800,000 people in the UK have Alzheimer’s disease (AD); approximately 5-20% of older people in the UK have mild cognitive impairment (MCI); and approximately one-quarter to one-half of older adults are believed to have subjective cognitive impairment (SCI). By 2050 the number of people living with AD in the UK will rise to 1.7 million. SCI is characterised as a person experiencing cognitive impairments such as forgetfulness, but appear clinically normal on standard cognitive assessments. Memory clinics have many different care pathways for people with SCI. For instance, some offer a prevention training programme, whilst others discharge the patient, thus they are sent away with an uncomfortable feeling knowing something is wrong whilst being told ‘you are fine’. Research postulates that people with SCI are 4.5 times more likely to develop MCI than people without, thus suggesting SCI could be a pre-MCI stage, and therefore possibly a harbinger to AD. SCI has numerous ca...
Research Interests:
This dataset provides data for 138 participants: 47 with developmental prosopagnosia (DP); 91 control participants with no recorded face recognition deficits. Participants with DP are further classified into two groups based on the output... more
This dataset provides data for 138 participants: 47 with developmental prosopagnosia (DP); 91 control participants with no recorded face recognition deficits. Participants with DP are further classified into two groups based on the output of a cluster analysis carried out on the data (see underpinning publication for details)For each participant, this dataset includes basic demographic details (age and gender), as well as scores on a battery of face processing tasks. This battery includes: -Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT): raw scores (/72) for upright and inverted; inversion index- Cambridge Face Perception Test (CFPT): raw and % correct scores for upright and inverted; inversion index- Famous faces test: % correctly identified from total known identities- Composite task: Accuracy (proportion correct) and reaction time (RT) for faces and dogs presented in aligned and misaligned conditions; alignment index for each stimulus type and measure- Face matching: d' and RT for faces a...
Research Interests:
We describe the investigation of speech automatisms in a man with progressive nonfluent aphasia and apraxias. Occurrence of the automatisms yes and right, were analysed across a range of speech tasks varying in length, propositionality,... more
We describe the investigation of speech automatisms in a man with progressive nonfluent aphasia and apraxias. Occurrence of the automatisms yes and right, were analysed across a range of speech tasks varying in length, propositionality, lexical and articulatory complexity, whether tasks engaged internal generation or external triggering and articulatory distortions, and while completing pantomimes/gestures. No differences were found in occurrence across most tasks but there was a significant interaction between automatism production and apraxic speech errors and during limb praxic tasks, suggesting that production of the automatism was unrelated to linguistic or lexical variables, but was related to the presence of speech apraxia coupled with disinhibition.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The role of phonological short-term memory (pSTM) in phonological judgement tasks of print has been widely explored using concurrent articulation (CA). A number of studies have examined the effects of CA on written word/nonword rhyme and... more
The role of phonological short-term memory (pSTM) in phonological judgement tasks of print has been widely explored using concurrent articulation (CA). A number of studies have examined the effects of CA on written word/nonword rhyme and homophone judgements but the findings have been mixed and few studies have examined both tasks within subjects. Also important is the influence of orthographic similarity on such tasks (i.e., items that share phonology often strongly overlap on orthography). Although there are reports of orthographic similarity effects (e.g., LOAD-TOAD vs. DIAL-MILE) on rhyme judgements, it is unknown whether (a) similar orthographic effects are present with homophone judgements, (b) the degree to which such orthographic effects interact with CA, and (c) the degree to which such orthographic effects interact with lexical status (words vs. nonwords). The present work re-examines these three issues in a within subject design. CA and orthographic similarity yielded subtle differences across tasks. CA impaired accuracy for both homophone and rhyme judgement, but only slowed RTs on the rhyme judgement task, and then only for words. Orthographic similarity yielded an increase in false positives for similar items and vice versa for dissimilar items, suggesting a general impact of an orthographically based 'bias' in choosing similar or dissimilar sounding items. This pattern was amplified under CA but only on the homophone judgement task. These results highlight important interactions between phonological and orthographic representations in phonological judgement tasks, and the findings are considered both with reference to earlier studies and several models of pSTM.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This dataset contains data from a sequential same/different matching task. For full details of the procedure, see the accompanying publication "The domain-specificity of face matching impairments in 40 cases of developmental... more
This dataset contains data from a sequential same/different matching task. For full details of the procedure, see the accompanying publication "The domain-specificity of face matching impairments in 40 cases of developmental prosopangosia" or Bobak, A. K., Bennetts, R. J., Parris, B. A., Jansari, A., & Bate, S. (2016). An in-depth cognitive examination of individuals with superior face recognition skills. <i>Cortex</i>, <i>82</i>, 48-62.<b>Participants:</b> 40 individuals with developmental prosopagnosia and 60 individuals with typical face recognition ability (control). See accompanying paper for inclusion and exclusion criteria for each group. Participants are split into two age groups: younger (18-49 years old) and older (50-70 years old). The age (in years) of each participant is also included. <b>Task design: </b>There are three categories of objects included in the task: faces, hands, and houses. For each object categor...
Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is increasingly recognized in both the clinical and research arenas as a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Although SCD is etiologically heterogeneous and... more
Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is increasingly recognized in both the clinical and research arenas as a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Although SCD is etiologically heterogeneous and potentially treatable, in comparison to MCI and Alzheimer’s disease, SCD remains poorly characterized with its clinical relevance often questioned. Objective: This study’s aim was to improve the characterization of SCD within the general public. Methods: Individuals with SCD were compared to those without via a battery of measures. Results: Both the SCD and the non-SCD group correlational analysis identified significant relationships between worse SCD, worse metacognitive dysfunction, negative affective symptoms, and greater levels of stress. The SCD group displayed additional correlational relationships between Cognitive Change Index (Self report) (CCI-S) scores, higher neuroticism scores, and poorer quality of life (QoL). Partial correlation analysis in t...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
semantic dementia. They simulated some aspects of these data using a connectionist parallel distributed processing (PDP) triangle model of reading. We argue here that a different model of reading, the dual route cascaded (DRC) model of... more
semantic dementia. They simulated some aspects of these data using a connectionist parallel distributed processing (PDP) triangle model of reading. We argue here that a different model of reading, the dual route cascaded (DRC) model of Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, and Ziegler (2001), not only provides a more accurate simulation of these aspects of reading in semantic dementia than does the PDP model but also provides highly accurate simulations of other aspects of reading in this disorder that the PDP approach has not simulated. We conclude that our findings add to evidence both from simulations of normal skilled reading and from simulations of other kinds of acquired dyslexia that the nonconnectionist DRC model of reading offers a better account of normal and disordered reading than the connectionist PDP models of reading.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT The current authors reply to a response by Woollams, Lambon Ralph, Plaut, and Patterson on a comment by the current authors on the original article. The current authors list their agreements and disagreements with Woollams,... more
ABSTRACT The current authors reply to a response by Woollams, Lambon Ralph, Plaut, and Patterson on a comment by the current authors on the original article. The current authors list their agreements and disagreements with Woollams, Lambon Ralph, Plaut, and Patterson&#39;s response on the topics of the human reading system, cognitive architecture, experimental psychology of reading, and computational models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
In the last 15 years, increasing numbers of individuals have self-referred to research laboratories in the belief that they experience severe everyday difficulties with face recognition. The condition “developmental prosopagnosia” (DP) is... more
In the last 15 years, increasing numbers of individuals have self-referred to research laboratories in the belief that they experience severe everyday difficulties with face recognition. The condition “developmental prosopagnosia” (DP) is typically diagnosed when impairment is identified on at least two objective face-processing tests, usually involving assessments of face perception, unfamiliar face memory, and famous face recognition. While existing evidence suggests that some individuals may have a mnemonic form of prosopagnosia, it is also possible that other subtypes exist. The current study assessed 165 adults who believe they experience DP, and 38% of the sample were impaired on at least two of the tests outlined above. While statistical dissociations between face perception and face memory were only observed in four cases, a further 25% of the sample displayed dissociations between impaired famous face recognition and intact short-term unfamiliar face memory and face percept...
Research Interests:
Background:Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) is increasingly recognised in both the clinical and research arena as a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, in... more
Background:Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) is increasingly recognised in both the clinical and research arena as a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, in comparison to MCI and AD, SCI remains relatively poorly characterised, with debate persisting regarding its clinical relevance and importance. Possible explanations for the debate is a lack of awareness amongst clinicians regarding what SCI is, what aspects of brain function it may impact on, and the influence such functional detriment may have upon quality of life and well-being. A principal aim in both the clinical and research arena is to further characterise what functions may be abnormal in SCI in addition to reported feelings of changes in memory and cognition. Methods:The present cross-sectional study was designed to characterise SCI in the general-public (i.e., not medically diagnosed) with respect to visual attention-related processing speed (RT) and the intra-individual variability of reaction time (IIVRT) and in relation to various factors including the cognition, memory, mood, anxiety, neuroticism and quality of life of the participants. Results:The results revealed that at group level there were no significant differences in RT and IIVRT between the SCI and non-SCI group. However, within-group correlational analysis identified that within the SCI group, there was evidence of slowing RTand increased IIVRT. In addition, at group level those in the SCI group were also experiencing significant distress in relation to anxiety, depression and poor QOL. Conclusions: Within the current study it is not possible to identify cause and effect, therefore the individuals in the SCI group cannot simply be dismissed as being ’worried well’. They still require a full-comprehensive assessment, a follow-up assessment, and appropriate support. This presentation will reveal and explore what characteristics of SCI were identified within this study and what the next steps are (i.e. the testing of a clinical population).
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper describes longitudinal testing of two Semantic Dementia (SD) cases. It is common for patients with SD to present with deficits in reading aloud irregular words (i.e. surface dyslexia), and in lexical decision. Theorists from... more
This paper describes longitudinal testing of two Semantic Dementia (SD) cases. It is common for patients with SD to present with deficits in reading aloud irregular words (i.e. surface dyslexia), and in lexical decision. Theorists from the connectionist tradition (e.g. Woollams et al., 2007) argue that in SD cases with concurrent surface dyslexia, the deterioration of irregular word reading and recognition performance is related to the extent of the deterioration of the semantic system. The Dual Route Cascaded model (DRC; Coltheart et al., 2001) makes no such prediction. We examined this issue using a battery of cognitive tests and two structural scans undertaken at different points in each cases time course. Across both cases, our behavioural testing found little evidence of a key putative link between semantic impairment and the decline of irregular word reading or lexical decision. In addition, our neuroimaging analyses suggested that it may be the emergence of atrophy to key neu...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Bilingualism has been identified as a potential cognitive factor linked to delayed onset of dementia as well as boosting executive functions in healthy individuals. However, more recently, this claim has been called into question... more
Bilingualism has been identified as a potential cognitive factor linked to delayed onset of dementia as well as boosting executive functions in healthy individuals. However, more recently, this claim has been called into question following several failed replications. It remains unclear whether these contradictory findings reflect how bilingualism is defined between studies, or methodological limitations when measuring the bilingual effect. One key issue is that despite the claims that bilingualism yields general protection to cognitive processes (i.e., the cognitive reserve hypothesis), studies reporting putative bilingual differences are often focused on domain specific experimental paradigms. This study chose a broader approach, by considering the consequences of bilingualism on a wide range of cognitive functions within individuals. We utilised 19 measures of different cognitive functions commonly associated with bilingual effects, to form a “cognitive profile” for 215 non-clini...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
IntroductionRecent studies have revealed a high prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms among university students, highlighting an urgent need for preventative measures at low cost to better support often overwhelmed support... more
IntroductionRecent studies have revealed a high prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms among university students, highlighting an urgent need for preventative measures at low cost to better support often overwhelmed support services.ObjectiveHere we propose a protocol for assessing the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) for an online transdiagnostic psychoeducational intervention called ‘A Bite of ACT’ compared with a waitlist control.Methods and analysisThis is an RCT with crossover design involving baseline assessments and two follow-up periods. The primary outcome measure will be the Acceptance Checklist for Clinical Effectiveness Pilot Trials (ACCEPT) for measuring the feasibility of the trial design and methods. Secondary outcomes include measures of well-being, social connectedness, quality of life (EuroQol Five Dimensions), depression, anxiety and stress (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21), as well as the process measures: psychological flexib...
Research Interests:
Background: Reading in pure alexia is slow and inaccurate, and is characterised by word length effects. This is due to an inability to access visual word forms from print and compounded by poor performance in letter identification.... more
Background: Reading in pure alexia is slow and inaccurate, and is characterised by word length effects. This is due to an inability to access visual word forms from print and compounded by poor performance in letter identification. Tactile-kinaesthetic facilitation is a technique used to access letter and word representations via an alternative route to improve reading success.Aims: We aimed to determine whether improvements in letter identification achieved through tactile-kinaesthetic facilitation would generalise across letter case, and whether improvements in single word reading following training would generalise to untrained lists.Methods & Procedures: A case of pure alexia was trained to use tactile-kinaesthetic facilitation by tracing uppercase letters on the palm of his hand. Training lasted 4 and a half hours spread over a 4 week period. His identification of uppercase and lowercase letters was tested before training, immediately after training, and 4 weeks after training ...
It has recently been suggested that the other race effect (ORE), whereby own race faces are recognised better than those of other races, can be abolished by bilingualism.Bilingualism, however, is not a categorical variable but can vary... more
It has recently been suggested that the other race effect (ORE), whereby own race faces are recognised better than those of other races, can be abolished by bilingualism.Bilingualism, however, is not a categorical variable but can vary dramatically in proficiency across the two languages. We therefore hypothesised that increasing bilingual proficiency should be associated with a diminishing ORE. To test this, we asked a group of bilingual Singaporean Chinese individuals to complete the Asian and Caucasian Cambridge Face Memory Tests. In contrast to recent work, our bilinguals did as a group exhibit an ORE, however, the magnitude of this effect decreased as reported cross-language proficiency increased; Chinese, rather than English, listening ability drove this association. This relationship persisted even when taking into account our participants' exposure to Caucasians, own race memory ability, age, and gender. Moreover, we discounted the possibility that bilingualism merely re...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global social problem, which may result in intimate partner homicide (IPH). Much of the research concerned with IPH is based in developed nations and as such this study explored men’s explanations for... more
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global social problem, which may result in intimate partner homicide (IPH). Much of the research concerned with IPH is based in developed nations and as such this study explored men’s explanations for IPH (known locally as “passion killing”) in the Namibian context by interviewing 10 individuals who were convicted and sentenced for the murder of their female intimate partners. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the offenders and the resulting transcripts were analyzed by Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Findings confirmed and extended previous research stating that the intertwined influence of cultural beliefs and attitudes, external influences, as well as lack of emotional control and problem-solving skills, influence IPH. However, the study discovered that culture-specific factors, such as witchcraft, also play a role in some IPH cases in Namibia. The findings suggest approaches to work with young men and perpetrators to re...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Western cultures promote a thin and curvaceous ideal body size that most women find difficult to achieve by healthy measures, resulting in poor body image and increased risk for eating pathology. Research focusing on body image in lesbian... more
Western cultures promote a thin and curvaceous ideal body size that most women find difficult to achieve by healthy measures, resulting in poor body image and increased risk for eating pathology. Research focusing on body image in lesbian and bisexual women has yielded inconsistent results. In total, 11 lesbian and bisexual women were interviewed regarding their experiences with body image. Interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed that these women experienced similar mainstream pressures to conform to a thin body ideal. Furthermore, participants perceived additional pressure to conform to heteronormative standards of beauty since the normalisation of homosexuality and the increase in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender representation in mainstream media.
Research Interests:
Over the last 20 years much attention in the field of face recognition has been directed towards the study of developmental prosopagnosia (DP), with some authors investigating the behavioural characteristics of the condition, and many... more
Over the last 20 years much attention in the field of face recognition has been directed towards the study of developmental prosopagnosia (DP), with some authors investigating the behavioural characteristics of the condition, and many others using these individuals to further our theoretical understanding of the typical face-processing system. It is broadly agreed that the term “DP” refers to people who have failed to develop the ability to recognize faces in the absence of neurological illness or injury, yet more precise terminology in relation to potential subtypes of the population are yet to be confirmed. Furthermore, specific diagnostic techniques and inclusion and exclusion criteria have yet to be uniformly accepted across the field, making cross-paper comparisons and meta-analyses very difficult. This paper presents an overview of the current challenges that face research into DP and introduces a series of papers that attempt to further our understanding of the condition'...
Research Interests:
Across 2 studies, the authors asked whether extensive experience in portrait art is associated with face recognition ability. In Study 1, 64 students completed a standardized face recognition test before and after completing a year-long... more
Across 2 studies, the authors asked whether extensive experience in portrait art is associated with face recognition ability. In Study 1, 64 students completed a standardized face recognition test before and after completing a year-long art course that included substantial portraiture training. They found no evidence of an improvement in face recognition after training over and above what would be expected by practice alone. In Study 2, the authors investigated the possibility that more extensive experience might be needed for such advantages to emerge, by testing a cohort of expert portrait artists (N = 28), all of whom had many years of experience. In addition to memory for faces, they also explored memory for abstract art and for words in a paired-associate recognition test. The expert portrait artists performed similarly to a large, normative comparison sample on memory for faces and words but showed a small advantage for abstract art. Taken together, the results converge with e...
Research Interests:
The role of the semantic system in recognizing objects is a matter of debate. Connectionist theories argue that it is impossible for a participant to determine that an object is familiar to them without recourse to a semantic hub;... more
The role of the semantic system in recognizing objects is a matter of debate. Connectionist theories argue that it is impossible for a participant to determine that an object is familiar to them without recourse to a semantic hub; localist theories state that accessing a stored representation of the visual features of the object is sufficient for recognition. We examine this issue through the longitudinal study of two cases of semantic dementia, a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a progressive degradation of the semantic system. The cases in this paper do not conform to the "common" pattern of object recognition performance in semantic dementia described by Rogers, T. T., Lambon Ralph, M. A., Hodges, J. R., & Patterson, K. (2004). Natural selection: The impact of semantic impairment on lexical and object decision. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 21, 331-352., and show no systematic relationship between severity of semantic impairment and success in object decision. W...
Research Interests:
This study focuses on the pattern of impairments seen in a new case KT, diagnosed with nonfluent progressive aphasia (NFPA), a degenerative disorder of language production. A systematic examination of... more
This study focuses on the pattern of impairments seen in a new case KT, diagnosed with nonfluent progressive aphasia (NFPA), a degenerative disorder of language production. A systematic examination of KT&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s performance on a wide range of language production tasks (i.e., repetition, reading, spelling, spoken and written naming) determined that both written naming and repetition were better preserved than reading, spelling-to-dictation, and spoken naming. Closer examination of error performance in both reading aloud and written production revealed evidence of &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;deep dyslexia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; and &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;deep dysgraphia&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; that has not been documented in previous cases of NFPA, and as such the present case represents the first detailed case study of this pattern of impairment in the context of progressive aphasia. An evaluation and discussion of such deep language impairment disorders in the context of other cases of NFPA has been undertaken with reference to the summation hypothesis proposed by Hillis and Caramazza (1991, 1995). It is suggested that as a principle that holds across all language production tasks, this account can encompass patterns of deep disorders thus far reported in NFPA, although other theoretical hypotheses cannot be excluded.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Cognitive Science, Phonetics, Reading, Language, Dyslexia, and 9 moreSpeech, Humans, Female, Male, Cortex, Reaction Time, Aged, Middle Aged, and Neurosciences
Friedman (1995) presents a review of 6 phonological dyslexic cases in which she suggests that this reading impairment is divisible into subtypes on the basis of two straightforward behavioural profiles: (1) cases with poor function word... more
Friedman (1995) presents a review of 6 phonological dyslexic cases in which she suggests that this reading impairment is divisible into subtypes on the basis of two straightforward behavioural profiles: (1) cases with poor function word reading and normal nonword repetition (3 cases) and (2) cases with good function word reading and poor nonword repetition (3 cases). This evidence is interpreted as support for a reading model that does not posit a non-lexical reading route (Harm and Seidenberg, 2001, 2004; Plaut, et al. 1996), with the pattern of impairment in case (1) being due to disruption of direct connections between orthography-phonology and in case (2) being due to a &amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;generalised&amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; impairment of phonology. The current review re-evaluates the validity of Friedman&amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s original criteria as a basis for identifying &amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;subtypes&amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; of phonological dyslexia with a larger sample of 38 documented cases. On balance it is found that the majority does not easily fit either subtype on the basis of the expected behavioural profiles. Thus the present survey would suggest that Friedman&amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s criteria for classification of phonological dyslexia is not particularly useful for the general population of such cases. However, subsequent correlational analyses did find evidence in support of a relationship between nonword reading impairment and nonword repetition/function word reading impairment. This finding is largely consistent with the principles of the type of reading model outlined by Friedman (1995), although other potential accounts cannot be ruled out. These findings are discussed in greater detail with relation to present models of reading and potential avenues for further research are proposed.