Dr Akira O'Connor

Senior Lecturer

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 46 2073

Email

aro2@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

I was state educated at comprehensive schools in Stanmore (NW London) and Watford before obtaining a BSc (Psychology), MSc (Health Psychology) and PhD (supervised by Prof. Chris Moulin) from the University of Leeds. After my PhD, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at Washington University in St Louis, where I worked in Prof. Ian Dobbins' lab. I have held a lecturing position at St Andrews since 2010. 

Research areas

I am interested in cognitive and neural bases of episodic memory judgments. I use cognitive experimental and quantitative data methods as well as fMRI and fcMRI to investigate the way in which we make decisions about our memories. Research themes include sensations of memory (e.g. déjà vu, déjà vécu), memory-expectation conflict (i.e. how we respond to discrepancies between memory and expectation), and the interaction between functional connectivity and task-evoked activation in fMRI studies of memory.

PhD supervision

• Rachel-Marie Weiss
• Federico De Filippi
• Nancy Zheng

Selected publications

• Open access

  Evidence for the contribution of a threshold retrieval process to semantic memory

  Kempnich, M., Urquhart, J., O'Connor, A. R. & Moulin, C., 1 Oct 2017, In: The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 70, 10, p. 2026-2047 22 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Pupil dilation during recognition memory: isolating unexpected recognition from judgment uncertainty

  Mill, R. D., O'Connor, A. R. & Dobbins, I., Sept 2016, In: Cognition. 154, p. 81-94

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Investigating the role of assessment method on reports of déjà vu and tip-of-the-tongue states during standard recognition tests

  Jersakova, R., Moulin, C. & O'Connor, A. R., 21 Apr 2016, In: PLoS One. 11, 4, e0154334.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Differentiating the functional contributions of resting connectivity networks to memory decision-making: fMRI support for multi-stage control processes

  Mill, R. D., Cavin, I. & O'Connor, A. R., 29 Jun 2015, In: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 27, 8, p. 1617-1632

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Question format shifts bias away from the emphasised response in tests of recognition memory

  Mill, R. D. & O'Connor, A. R., Nov 2014, In: Consciousness and Cognition. 30, p. 91-104 14 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  The awareness of novelty for strangely familiar words: a laboratory analogue of the déjà vu experience

  Urquhart, J. & O'Connor, A. R., 11 Nov 2014, In: PeerJ. 20 p., e666.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Some memories are odder than others: Judgments of episodic oddity violate known decision rules

  O'Connor, A. R., Guhl, E., Cox, J. & Dobbins, I., May 2011, In: Journal of Memory and Language. 64, 4, p. 299-315 17 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  The inferior parietal lobule and recognition memory: expectancy violation or successful retrieval?

  O'Connor, A. R., Han, S. & Dobbins, I. G., 24 Feb 2010, In: The Journal of Neuroscience. 30, 8, p. 2924-2934 11 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

 

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