Research interests

I'm currently carrying out empirical and theoretical research in the area of human problem solving. My PhD project is supervised by Prof. Stephen J. Payne and (provisionally) entitled 'Interactive Problem Solving — Internal and External Representations in Problem Solving'. If I manage to solve all remaining problems (of the project, not necessarily of Psychology) I hope to receive my PhD from Cardiff's School of Psychology by summer 2003.

More precisely, my present research addresses the relation of thought and action in skilled behaviour and problem solving. For example, how does the availability of interactive resources (paper and pencil, a calculator, a pointer) alter and shape someone's thoughts or problem solving processes?

I've been trying to summarize some thoughts on these themes in some presentations:

(Note: I haven't been updating this list for a few years. Please contact me if you want slides of more recent presentations.)

• Empirical Investigations of Mathematical Skills [12.5MB]
  Cognitive Science Tutorial 2, PhiMSAMP-2 , Utrecht, Netherlands, October 19–21, 2007.

• Thinking by Doing?  Non-pragmatic actions in problem-solving
  Invited research seminar at CREDIT, University of Nottingham, 05/12/2001.
  
• Towards a theory of learning by not doing
  School of Psychology Postgraduate Conference 2001, Gregynog, 27/10/2001.
• Addition as interactive problem solving
  Paper presented at the Twenty-third Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Edinburgh, 02/08/2001.

Cardiff's Research Group on Human Computer Interaction is an ideal environment to pursue these issues. (We are presently working on a more comprehensive web presentation — please be patient...)

Before becoming a professional 'problem solver' I carried out some experimental work on human reasoning and worked as a computer journalist. For details, please refer to my list of publications or CV.

Please note: A version of MultiTowers, a collection of software modules to conduct psychological experiments on the well-known 'Towers of Hanoi' and 'Tower of London' tasks, can be downloaded here.