Current roles:

Academic

• Senior Lecturer in the Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness (ManCAD)
• Co-Director of Research & Innovation for Division of Psychology, Communication, and Human Neuroscience
• Staff co-ordinator for Audiology Peer Mentoring
• Manchester Gold mentor

ManCAD website

Current funding:

2021-2026   Medical Research Council (£1.8M). Understanding the consequences of recreational noise exposure. Co-Investigator (with C. Plack, K. Kluk-de Kort, K. Munro, G. Prendergast, S. Roberts).

2020-2023   Alzheimer's Society PhD Studentship (£84,965). Improving Quality of Life through addressing communication needs for people in residential care living with dementia. Primary Supervisor (with C. A. Armitage, P. Dawes and I. Leroi).

2022-2027   National Institute for Health Research Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (Hearing Health) (£6M). Co-Investigator. Programme Lead for "Diagnosis: Disease Clusters".

My research interests include many aspects of auditory perception and cognition. My published work has used a combination of psychoacoustics and cognitive neuroscience to contribute to our understanding of how our brains respond to sounds that provide important cues for human communication. I am particularly interested in the effects of ageing and hearing loss on the auditory brain.  

Postdoctoral Research Associate:

• Hannah Cross

Project: 'Estimating the prevalence of hearing loss in people with dementia: A feasibility study'. Funded by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) (2023-2025).

PhD students:

• Yupeng Wu (self-funded)

Topic: "The irrelevant speech effect"

email: yupeng.wu@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Co-supervised with Karolina Kluk-de Kort (Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness) and Josef Schlittenlacher (Speech Hearing and Phoentics Science, UCL)

D. Clin. Sci. students (Higher Specialist Scientist Training scheme):

• Joanne Hollingworth

Topic: "Parental and Professional Experiences of Current Newborn Hearing Screening Procedures – A Qualitative study"

email: joanne.hollingworth-2@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Co-supervised with Kai Uus (Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness) and Siobhan Brennan (Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness).

• William Brassington

Topic: "The impact of cochlear implant electrode  deactivation on hearing outcomes and listening effort"

email: william.brassington-2@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Co-supervised with Kevin Munro (Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness).

Completed

• Peter Carolan (funded by Manchester NIHR BRC)

Topic: “Understanding listening effort: Effects of motivation, listening demands and inter-individual differences”.

Awarded PhD in 2022.

• Lorenza Zaira Curetti (funded by Manchester NIHR BRC)

 Topic: “Effects of intrinsic and imposed modulation masking on speech perception”.

Awarded PhD in 2023.

• Hannah Cross (funded by the Alzheimer's Society)

Topic: “Improving Quality of Life through addressing communication needs for people in residential care living with dementia”

Awarded PhD in 2023.

Module Lead

HCDI 38880 Audiology Research Project 

In this full year module, students design a clinical research project that addresses a gap in the evidence-base, is viable and appropriate for research ethics approval and external grant funding. The project gives students the opportunity to focus on a clinical question which particularly interests them, and to develop a research protocol capable of answering that question. It is also an opportunity to show that the student can plan research that would be of value to the NHS, is ethically sound and likely to attract funding from external funding bodies. Students conduct a literature review of their chosen research area and develop their research idea into a full research protocol. 

HCDI 11601 Introduction to Psychology and Lifespan Development 

This module provides a general introduction to research and theory in major areas of cognitive psychology. The students evaluate the influence of development and aging on cognitive psychology. The students learn about applications of cognitive psychology in audiological practice and management.

Lecturer & Assessment

PSYC 60600 MRes Dissertation Research Skills

Supervision of MSc dissertation

PSYC 61616 MSc Audiology 

PSYC 64030 MSc Clinical Sciences 

Assessment

HCDI 10000 Professional Studies I 

HCDI 10080 Clinical Placement and Practical Skills I

HCDI 39990 Clinical Placement and Practical Skills III

PSYC 60170 Research Methods and Statistics

• Society for Neuroscience
• Acoustical Society of America
• British Society of Audiology
• Association for Research in Otolaryngology