Mary O'Malley - Bournemouth University Staff Profile Pages

Biography

Biography

Mary O’Malley is a Psychology PhD student looking at ways to reduce spatial disorientation for older adults with memory difficulties (supervised by Dr Jan Wiener, Prof. Anthea Innes and Dr Mariela Gaete Reyes).

Using a mixed method approach, Mary is currently running a series of qualitative and quantitative studies to further understand which aspects (e.g. landmarks, floor layout, signage) of communal living environments (e.g. retirement settings, care-homes) are most important in facilitating successful orientation, and how these can be appropriately positioned within the environment. The findings from these studies could help the development and maintenance of communal living environments as well as feed into dementia friendly design principles.

Journal Articles

O'Malley, M., Innes, A., Muir, S. and Wiener, J.M., 2018. 'All the corridors are the same': A qualitative study of the orientation experiences and design preferences of UK older adults living in a communal retirement development. Ageing and Society, 38 (9), 1791-1816.
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O Malley, M., Innes, A. and Wiener, J.M., 2018. How do we get there? Effects of cognitive aging on route memory. Memory and Cognition, 46 (2), 274-284.
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O Malley, M., Innes, A. and Wiener, J.M., 2017. Decreasing spatial disorientation in care-home settings: How psychology can guide the development of dementia friendly design guidelines. Dementia, 16 (3), 315-328.
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Strickrodt, M., O'Malley, M. and Wiener, J.M., 2015. This place looks familiar-how navigators distinguish places with ambiguous landmark objects when learning novel routes. Frontiers in Psychology, 6 (DEC).
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Conferences

O'Malley, M., Innes, A. and Wiener, J., 2015. Reducing spatial disorientation for older adults with memory difficulties: Towards dementia-friendly architecture. S40.
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O'Malley, M., Innes, A. and Wiener, J., 2015. Do you still know how to get there? Effects of cognitive ageing on route memory. S34.
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Heward, M. and O'Malley, M., 2014. Dementia Friendly Environments. In: South Health Care Expo 24 April 2014 Cardiff.
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Theses

O'Malley, M., 2017. How did we get there? Supporting older adults’ spatial orientation within the built environment. PhD Thesis. Bournemouth University, Faculty of Science and Technology.
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Posters

O'Malley, M., Innes, Muir, S. and Wiener, J., 2016. The Orientation Experiences and Design Preferences of Residents Living in a Retirement Development. In: Alzheimer’s Disease International.
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O'Malley, Innes and Wiener, 2016. How do we get there? The effects of cognitive ageing on map reading abilities. In: iNAV 2016.
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Profile of Teaching PG

Applied Dementia Studies (MSc): Introductory Lecture to the Psychology of Dementia

Profile of Teaching UG

Psychology (BSc) - delivering seminars and marking of year 1 and 2 units.

Invited Lectures

Using virtual reality to learn environments, Bournemouth, UK, 18 Mar 2015 more

BUDI Masterclass: Technology and Dementia

Public Engagement & Outreach Activities

Talk Titled: Finding your way: understanding how environments can influence navigational abilities. Café Scientifique, Bournemouth, UK
Talk Titled: "Virtual Care Homes – Developing Dementia Friendly Environments" at BUDI Open Meeting. 10th May 2016. Bournemouth, UK
Talk titled: "Creating dementia friendly environments: how to support successful orientation for people with dementia" at ARCC Sensing the Place – Experiences & Wayfinding in a Changing Climate. 27th April 2016. London, UK
Talk Titled: "Reducing spatial disorientation for older adults with memory difficulties: understanding how environments can be improved to support orientation" at the BUDI Research Seminars. 24th November 2015. Bournemouth, UK
Workshop titled: BUDI Wayfinding Workshop - An overview of existing dementia friendly design guidelines and research surrounding orientation and dementia. ESRC Festival of Social Sciences. Bournemouth, UK

Conference Presentations

1st Interdisciplinary Navigation Symposium (iNAV), How do we get there? The effects of cognitive ageing on map reading abilities., 26 Jun 2016, Bad Gastein, Austria
Alzheimer's Disease International, The Orientation Experiences and Design Preferences of Residents Living in a Retirement Development, 21 Apr 2016, Budapest Hungary
International Conference on Spatial Cognition: Space and Situated Cognition (ICSC), Reducing spatial disorientation for older adults with memory difficulties: Towards dementia friendly architecture, 07 Sep 2015, Rome, Italy
Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP), Do you still know how to get there? The effects of cognitive ageing on route memory., 08 Mar 2015, Hildesheim, Germany
Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP), How to find a shortcut within a city? Mental Walk vs. Mental Model, 30 Mar 2014, Giessen, Germany

Attended Training

Spatial Cognition Research Internship (with Dr. Tobias Meilinger) at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, 01 Oct 2011

Qualifications

Qualifications

BSc (Hons) in Psychology with a Professional Placement (Cardiff University, 2013)