Ben Parris

Professor Ben Parris

  • Deputy Head Of Department and Professor In Psychology
  • Poole House P113, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
Back to top

Biography

After completing his DPhil (PhD) on the control of attention (selecting to what and where we focus our attention) at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Sussex in 2005, Dr Parris went on to complete postdoctoral positions at the Universities' of Exeter and Oxford. He joined Bournemouth University as a Senior Lecturer in 2008 and is now a Professor in the Department of Psychology and head of the Cognition and Brain Sciences research group.

Research

My research interests focus on the cognitive and neural mechanisms of the control of attention and behaviour. To better understand these processes I employ behavioural, eye tracking, pupillometry and brain-based methods such as fMRI, MRI and TMS. I am also interested in investigating individual differences in the control of attention and behaviour in non-neurotypical populations such as in ADHD, and control over phenomenological experiences such as conscious awareness and pain.

Favourites

  • Parris, B.A., 2014. Task conflict in the Stroop task: Stroop interference decreases whilst Stroop facilitation increases in a low task conflict context. Frontiers in Psychology.
  • Parris, B.A., Dienes, Z., Bate, S. and Gothard, S., 2014. Oxytocin impedes the effect of the word blindness post-hypnotic suggestion on Stroop task performance. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 9 (7), 895-899.
  • Parris, B.A., Dienes, Z., Bate, S. and Gothard, S., 2013. Oxytocin impedes the effect of the word blindness posthypnotic suggestion on Stroop task performance. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
  • Parris, B.A., Dienes, Z. and Hodgson, T.L., 2012. Temporal constraints of the word blindness posthypnotic suggestion on Stroop task performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 38 (4), 833-837.
  • Parris, B.A., Bate, S., Brown, S.D. and Hodgson, T.L., 2012. Facilitating goal-oriented behaviour in the Stroop task: when executive control is influenced by automatic processing. PLoS One, 7 (10), e46994.
  • Parris, B.A., Dienes, Z. and Hodgson, T.L., 2012. Temporal constraints of the post-hypnotic word blindness suggestion on Stroop task performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 38 (4), 833-837.
  • Rolls, E.T., Grabenhorst, F. and Parris, B., 2010. Neural systems underlying decisions about affective odors. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22 (5), 1069-1082.
  • Grabenhorst, F., De Souza, A., Parris, B., Rolls, E.T. and Passingham, R., 2010. A common neural scale for the subjective pleasantness of different primary rewards. NeuroImage, 51, 1265-1274.
  • Grabenhorst, F., Rolls, E.T., Parris, B.A. and De Souza, A., 2009. How the brain represents the reward value of fat in the mouth. Cerebral Cortex.
  • Parris, B., Kuhn, G., Mizon, G.A., Benattayallah, A. and Hodgson, T.L., 2009. Imaging the impossible: An fMRI study of impossible causal relationships in magic tricks. NeuroImage, 45, 1033-1039.
  • Grabenhorst, F., Rolls, E.T. and Parris, B., 2008. From Affective Value to Decision-Making in the Prefrontal Cortex. European Journal of Neuroscience, 28, 1930-1939.
  • Hodgson, T.L., Chamberlain, M., Parris, B., James, M., Gutowski, N., Husain, M. and Kennard, C., 2007. The Role of the Ventrolateral Frontal Cortex in Inhibitory Oculomotor Control. Brain, 130, 1525-1537.
  • Parris, B., Thai, N., Benattayallah, A., Summers, I. and Hodgson, T.L., 2007. The Role of the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex and Anterior Cingulate in Stimulus- Response Association Reversals. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 13-24.
  • Parris, B., Sharma, D. and Weekes, B.S., 2007. An Optimal Viewing Position Effect in the Stroop Task When Only One Letter Is the Color Carrier. Experimental Psychology, 54, 273-280.
  • Parris, B. and Weekes, B.S., 2001. Action Naming in Dementia. Neurocase, 7, 459-471.

Journal Articles

Books

  • The Locus of the Stroop effect. Lausanne: Frontiers Media SA.

Chapters

  • Parris, B., Sharma, D. and Weekes, B.S., 2002. The Stroop Effect and Automaticity in Visual Word Recognition. Psychonomic Society (Annual meeting) (43rd : 2002 Nov : Kansas City, MI). Arlington, USA: Psychonomic Society.

Conferences

  • Gurr, B., Varkovetski, M. and Parris, B., 2023. A clinical protocol for 'Luria's Fist-Edge-Palm' (FEP) task. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF STROKE, 18 (1), 7.
  • Parris, B. and Hasshim, N., 2016. Trial type mixing modulates response set membership effects in the Stroop task. In: British Psychological Society Meeting April 2016 Nottingham.
  • Elisa, R. and Parris, B., 2015. To explore or exploit? Using pupillometry to track norepinephrine activity in adults with ADHD symptoms. In: TeaP 8-11 March 2015 Hildesheim.
  • Elisa, R. and Parris, B.A., 2015. Exploring the relationship between inattention and working memory in adults. In: Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society 8-10 April 2015 Leeds.
  • Hasshim, N. and Parris, B., 2015. Trial type mixing modulates response set membership effects in the Stroop task. In: Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society 8-10 April 2015 Leeds.
  • Elisa, R. and Parris, B., 2015. To explore or exploit? Using pupillometry to track norepinephrine activity in adults with ADHD symptoms. In: European Conference on Eye Movements August 2015 Vienna.
  • Elisa, R. and Parris, B., 2015. To explore or exploit? Using pupillometry to track norepinephrine activity in adults with ADHD symptoms. In: Meeting of the Psychonomic Society November 2015 Chicago.
  • Hasshim, N. and Parris, B.A., 2014. Response set membership effects in pure vs. mixed contexts. In: Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society 16-18 July 2014 Newcastle.
  • Parris, B.A., Dienes, Z. and Hodgson, T.L., 2012. Temporal constraints of the word-blindness post-hypnotic suggestion on Stroop task performance. In: Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society 5-8 September 2012 Hull.
  • Parris, B.A., Bate, S. and Hodgson, T.L., 2010. Facilitating goal maintenance in the Stroop task. Paper presented at the , Cardiff. In: Annual Meeting of the British Psychological Society Cognitive Section 6-8 September 2010 Cardiff, UK.
  • Hodgson, T.L., Parris, B., Benattayallah, A. and Summers, I., 2009. Multimodal and unimodal areas for rule based behavioural control. In: 16th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society 21-24 March 2009 Hyatt Regency San Francisco.
  • De Souza, A., Grabenhorst, F., Parris, B., Rolls, E.T. and Passingham, R., 2009. A common neural scale for subjective value of different primary rewards. In: Neuroscience 2009: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 17-21 October 2009 Chicago, USA.
  • Parris, B., Grabenhorst, F., Rolls, E.T., Kadohisa, M. and De Souza, A., 2009. How the brain represents the reward value of fat in the mouth. In: Neuroscience 2009: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 17-21 October 2009 Chicago, USA.
  • Parris, B., 2009. Priming and response-stimulus intervals in the Stroop task. In: Invited talk May 2009 University of Southampton, England.
  • Parris, B., Bate, S. and Hodgson, T.L., 2008. Prime speed for selective attention in the Stroop task. In: Meeting of the British Psychological Society: Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section 22 November 2008 London.
  • Dienes, Z. and Parris, B., 2008. Unconsciously reading words. In: Annual Meeting of the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis 15-18 May 2008 London.
  • Grabenhorst, F., Rolls, E.T. and Parris, B., 2008. From affective value to decision making in the brain. In: Neuroscience 2008: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 15-19 November 2008 Washington D.C..
  • Rolls, E.T., Grabenhorst, F. and Parris, B., 2008. Neural systems underlying decisions about affective odours. In: Neuroscience 2008: Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 15-19 November 2008 Washington D.C..
  • Parris, B., 2008. Prime speed for selective attention in the Stroop task. In: Invited talk. February 2008 University of Fribourg, Switzerland..
  • Parris, B., Bate, S. and Hodgson, T.L., 2008. Prime speed for selective attention in the Stroop task. In: Meeting of the British Psychological Society: Cognitive Psychology Section 8-10 September 2008 Southampton.
  • Bradley, V., Davies, R., Parris, B., Fan Su, I. and Weekes, B.S., 2006. Age of Acquisition Effects on Action Naming in Progressive Fluent Aphasia. Brain and Language, 99, 117-118.
  • Parris, B. and Weekes, B.S., 2006. Naming Actions and Objects in Dementia. Brain and Language, 99, 119-120.
  • Parris, B., Kuhn, G. and Hodgson, T.L., 2006. Imaging the impossible:an fMRI study of violations in cause and effect relations in magic tricks. In: Neuroscience 2006: Annual Meeting for the Society for Neuroscience 14-18 October 2006 Altanta, Georgia.
  • Hodgson, T.L. and Parris, B., 2006. The role of the ventrolateral frontal cortex in volitional oculomotor control. In: Neuroscience 2006: Annual Meeting for the Society for Neuroscience 14-18 October 2006 Altanta, Georgia.
  • Parris, B., 2006. An oculomotor Stroop task: Capture, control and cognition. In: Invited talk February 2006 University of Durham.,England.
  • Parris, B., 2005. The prefrontal cortex in action. In: Invited talk November 2005 University of Kent, England.
  • Parris, B., 2005. The use of fMRI in the study of language. In: Invited lecture April 2005 University of Fribourg, Switzerland..
  • Parris, B., Sharma, D. and Weekes, B.S., 2003. The Stroop effect and automaticity in word reading. In: Experimental Psychological Society 9-11 July 2003 Reading, England.
  • Weekes, B.S., Davies, R., Parris, B. and Robinson, G., 2002. Age of Acquisition effects of spelling in surface dysgraphia. In: Experimental Psychological Society 9-11 April 2002 Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium.
  • Weekes, B.S. and Parris, B., 2001. Action Naming in Dementia. In: British Psychological Society Cognitive Psychology Section 17th Annual Conference September 2000 University of Essex. , 127 The British Psychological Society Vol 9 (2).
  • Parris, B. and Weekes, B.S., 2000. Do actions speak louder than words? In: British Psychological Society: Cognitive Section Meeting September 2000 University College London.

Preprints

  • Palfi, B., Parris, B., McLatchie, N., Kekecs, Z. and Dienes, Z., 2021. Can unconscious intentions be more effective than conscious intentions? Test of the role of metacognition in hypnotic response.
  • Palfi, B., Parris, B., Collins, A. and Dienes, Z., 2019. Strategies that reduce Stroop interference.

PhD Students

  • Batuhan Cakir, (In progress)
  • Jason Helstrip, (In progress)
  • Nabil Hassim, 2016. Investigating trial types putatively evidencing semantic conflict in the Stroop task
  • Olivier De Condappa, 2016. Wayfinding in young and old adults
  • Dawid Pekalski, 2020. Understanding political engagement
  • Vanessa Bartholomew. Pain in early labour; developing support for women in the latent phase of labour
  • Adam Eason. Self- vs. Hetero-Hypnosis
  • Anna Bobak. Investigation of Super Face Recognisers
  • Dawid Pekalski. The role of rational choice, social identity and neurocognitive ability in voting behaviour
  • Gizem Arabaci. Inattention and Mind Wandering
  • Rebecca Elisa. Inattention, Working Memory and Self-Regulation

Profile of Teaching PG

  • Key Transferable Skills
  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Project Supervision
  • Cognitive and Clinical Neuropsychology
  • Advanced Research Methods

Profile of Teaching UG

  • Personality, Intelligence and Individual DIfferences
  • Mind, Brain and Evolution
  • Project Supervision

Invited Lectures

  • Department of Psychology, University of Rouen, 24 May 2018 more
  • Royal Society of Medicine, 11 Dec 2017 more
  • On the control of ‘automatic' processing., The Royal Society of Medicine, 14 Dec 2014 more
  • Royal Society of Medicine, 08 Dec 2014 more
  • Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes Universit, 13 Nov 2012 more
  • Exploring the word blindness suggestion, Department of Psychology, Oxford Brookes Universit, 01 Nov 2012 more
  • Priming, Response-Stimulus Interval and the Stroop, Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong., 01 Sep 2011 more
  • Priming, Response-Stimulus Interval and the Stroop, Department of Psychology, University of Southampto, 01 May 2009 more

Grants

  • Static and dynamic cognitive control abilities and their relationship to hypnotic suggestibility (Bial Foundation, 03 Jul 2023). Awarded
  • Optimizing Insights into Cognitive Control Abilities through the Lens of Stroop Interference: Behavioral, Electrophysiological and fMRI Investigations of its Distinct Components. (French National Research Agency, 01 Nov 2019). Awarded
  • Effortless control? Using pupillometry to assess effort expended to achieve a remarkable reduction in Stroop interference following a post-hypnotic suggestion for word blindness (British Academy/Leverhulme, 01 Sep 2019). Completed
  • A stimulus-driven account of the response set effect in the Stroop task (Experimental Psychology Society, 01 Feb 2017). Completed
  • Neural Correlates of Response inhibition and Response Conflict and their relation with ADHD Symptomatology (Welcome Trust, 01 Jun 2016). Completed
  • Effects of anxiety on sustained attention in an oculomotor Stroop task (Nuffield, 06 Jun 2011). Completed
  • The influence of different task instructions and priming on antisaccade performance in healthy young and healthy older adults (Nuffield, 06 Jun 2011). Completed

External Responsibilities

  • Frontiers in Psychology: Cognitive Science, Review Editor (2015-)
  • Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition, Review Editor (2015-)
  • Medical Research Council, Grant Reviewer (2014-)
  • ESRC, Rapporteur for Quality and Impact (2013-)

Internal Responsibilities

  • Member, Faculty Research Degree Committee
  • Member, Graduate School Research Degrees Committee
  • Member, Sponsorship and Clinical Governance Steering Committee
  • Chair, Psychology Research Committee
  • Unit of Assessment Leader (UoA4), Psychology
  • Head of Research, Psychology

Journal Reviewing/Refereeing

  • Psychology of Consciousness, Anonymous peer review, 03 Jul 2018
  • Frontiers in Psychology, Open peer review, 16 Sep 2016
  • Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, Anonymous peer review, 12 Jul 2016
  • BMC Psychiatry, Anonymous peer review, 12 Jul 2016
  • Memory and Cognition, Anonymous peer review, 06 May 2015
  • Aphasiology, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2010
  • Brain Topography: journal of functional neurophysiology, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2010
  • Cognition, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2010
  • Experimental Psychology, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2010
  • Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2009
  • Cerebral Cortex, 01 Sep 2008
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2007
  • Neuroimage, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2007
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2006
  • Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Anonymous peer review, 01 Sep 2005
  • Neurocase, 01 Sep 2003

Conference Presentations

  • EPS Conference, Inattention and task switching performance: The Role of Predictability, Working Memory and Goal Neglect., 10 Jul 2019, Bournemouth
  • SciTech Postgraduate Research conference of Bournemouth University, Inattention and Task Switching Performance: The role of predictability, interference, and working memory load., 09 May 2018, Bournemouth, UK
  • 58th Annual Meeting of Psychonomic Society, The relationship between ADHD traits and daily-life and probe-caught spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering on sub-clinical levels., 09 Nov 2017, Vancouver, Canada
  • EPS Conference, The relationship between ADHD symptoms and daily-life and probe-caught spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering in community samples., 12 Jul 2017, Reading
  • European Conference on Eye Movements (ECEM), 16 Aug 2015, Vienna, Austria
  • Experimental Psychology Society (EPS), 08 Apr 2015, Leeds, UK
  • Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP), 08 Mar 2015, Hildesheim

Attended Training

  • Impact Development Day, 06 Nov 2015

Qualifications

  • PGCert in Research Supervision (Bournemouth University, 2011)
  • DPhil in Experimental Psychology (University of Sussex, 2005)
  • BSc (Hons) in Psychology (with studies in Europe) (University of Kent, 2000)

Memberships

  • British Psychological Society, Chartered Member (2016-),
  • Royal Society of Medicine, Fellow (2015-),
  • Society for Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies, Member (2015-), http://www.placebosociety.org/
  • Experimental Psychology Society, Member,

External Media and Press