Dr Tom Beesley

Dr Tom Beesley

Visiting Fellow
Science
School of Psychology

My research focusses on understanding how humans process and learn about the relationships between aspects of their surrounding environment, and how such learning shapes behavior. In particular I am interested in the processes involved in associative learning and in the development of testable computational models of human learning. I am also interested in comparisons between learning under conditions of effortful reflection versus conditions which rely on the rapid processing of stimuli, the importance of intentionality in learning and the related question of whether conscious awareness is necessary for learning.

  • Book Chapters | 2019
    2019, 'Chapter 1 Eye Tracking as a Tool for Examining Cognitive Processes', in Biophysical Measurement in Experimental Social Science Research, Elsevier, pp. 1 - 30, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-813092-6.00002-2
    Book Chapters | 2019
    2019, 'Eye Tracking as a Tool for Examining Cognitive Processes', in Foster G (ed.), Biophysical Measurement in Experimental Social Science Research, pp. 1 - 31
    Book Chapters | 2019
    2019, 'Getting Started With Eye Tracking', in Biophysical Measurement in Experimental Social Science Research, Elsevier, pp. 279 - 304, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-813092-6.09990-1
    Book Chapters | 2017
    Le Pelley M; Griffiths O; Beesley T, 2017, 'Associative accounts of causal cognition', in Waldmann MR (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 13 - 28, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199399550.013.2
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Le Pelley M; Beesley T; Griffiths O, 2015, 'Associative Learning and Derived Attention in Humans', in The Wiley Handbook on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning, pp. 114 - 135, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118650813.ch6
  • Journal articles | 2022
    2022, 'Examining the Role of Depth Information in Contextual Cuing Using a Virtual Reality Visual Search Task', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 48, pp. 1313 - 1324, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001049
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Contextual cuing of visual search does not guide attention automatically in the presence of top-down goals.', J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform, 47, pp. 1080 - 1090, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000930
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'Protection From Uncertainty in the Exploration/Exploitation Trade-Off', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 48, pp. 547 - 568, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000883
    Journal articles | 2021
    2021, 'There is more to contextual cuing than meets the eye: Improving visual search without attentional guidance toward predictable target locations.', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 47, pp. 116 - 120, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000780
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'A dimensional summation account of polymorphous category learning.', Learn Behav, 48, pp. 66 - 83, http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13420-020-00409-6
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Failures of executive function when at a height: Negative height-related appraisals are associated with poor executive function during a virtual height stressor', Acta Psychologica, 203, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102984
    Journal articles | 2020
    2020, 'Testing the automaticity of an attentional bias towards predictive cues in human associative learning', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 73, pp. 762 - 780, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1747021819897590
    Journal articles | 2019
    2019, 'Learned predictiveness models predict opposite attention biases in the inverse base-rate effect.', J Exp Psychol Anim Learn Cogn, 45, pp. 143 - 162, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xan0000196
    Journal articles | 2019
    2019, 'The onset of uncertainty facilitates the learning of new associations by increasing attention to cues', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, pp. 193 - 208, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2017.1363257
    Journal articles | 2019
    2019, 'The role of uncertainty in attentional and choice exploration', Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 26, pp. 1911 - 1916, http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-019-01653-2
    Journal articles | 2018
    Griffiths O; Erlinger M; Beesley T; Le Pelley ME, 2018, 'Outcome predictability biases cued search', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 44, pp. 1215 - 1223, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000529
    Journal articles | 2018
    Kennedy BL; Pearson D; Sutton DJ; Beesley T; Most SB, 2018, 'Spatiotemporal competition and task-relevance shape the spatial distribution of emotional interference during rapid visual processing: Evidence from gaze-contingent eye-tracking', Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 80, pp. 426 - 438, http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13414-017-1448-9
    Journal articles | 2018
    Mifsud NG; Beesley T; Watson TL; Elijah RB; Sharp TS; Whitford TJ, 2018, 'Attenuation of visual evoked responses to hand and saccade-initiated flashes', Cognition, 179, pp. 14 - 22, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.005
    Journal articles | 2018
    2018, 'Overt attention in contextual cuing of visual search is driven by the attentional set, but not by the predictiveness of distractors', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 44, pp. 707 - 721, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000467
    Journal articles | 2017
    Luque D; Beesley T; Morris RW; Jack BN; Griffiths O; Whitford TJ; Le Pelley ME, 2017, 'Goal-directed and habit-like modulations of stimulus processing during reinforcement learning', Journal of Neuroscience, 37, pp. 3009 - 3017, http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3205-16.2017
    Journal articles | 2017
    Luque D; Vadillo MA; Le Pelley ME; Beesley T, 2017, 'Prediction and uncertainty in associative learning: examining controlled and automatic components of learned attentional biases', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, pp. 1485 - 1503, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1188407
    Journal articles | 2016
    Beesley T; Vadillo MA; Pearson D; Shanks DR, 2016, 'Configural learning in contextual cuing of visual search', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42, pp. 1173 - 1185, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000185
    Journal articles | 2016
    Le Pelley ME; Mitchell CJ; Beesley T; George DN; Wills AJ, 2016, 'Attention and associative learning in humans: An integrative review', Psychological Bulletin, 142, pp. 1111 - 1140, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000064
    Journal articles | 2016
    Lee JC; Beesley T; Livesey EJ, 2016, 'Sequential effects and sequence learning in a three-choice serial reaction time task', Acta Psychologica, 170, pp. 168 - 176, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.08.004
    Journal articles | 2016
    Mifsud NG; Beesley T; Watson TL; Whitford TJ, 2016, 'Attenuation of auditory evoked potentials for hand and eye-initiated sounds', Biological Psychology, 120, pp. 61 - 68, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2016.08.011
    Journal articles | 2016
    2016, 'Affective penetration of vision: Behavioral and eye-tracking evidence that emotion helps shape perception', Journal of Vision, 16, pp. 1138 - 1138, http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/16.12.1138
    Journal articles | 2015
    Beesley T; Pearson D; Le Pelley M, 2015, 'Implicit learning of gaze-contingent events', Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 22, pp. 800 - 807, http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0720-4
    Journal articles | 2015
    Beesley T; Vadillo MA; Pearson D; Shanks DR, 2015, 'Pre-exposure of repeated search configurations facilitates subsequent contextual cuing of visual search', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 41, pp. 348 - 362, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000033
    Journal articles | 2015
    Le Pelley ME; Pearson D; Griffiths O; Beesley T, 2015, 'When goals conflict with values: Counterproductive attentional and oculomotor capture by reward-related stimuli', Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144, pp. 158 - 171, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000037
    Journal articles | 2015
    Vadillo MA; Street CN H; Beesley T; Shanks DR, 2015, 'A simple algorithm for the offline recalibration of eye-tracking data through best-fitting linear transformation', Behavior Research Methods, 47, pp. 1365 - 1376, http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-014-0544-1
    Journal articles | 2015
    2015, 'Uncertainty and predictiveness determine attention to cues during human associative learning', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68, pp. 2175 - 2199, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1009919
    Journal articles | 2013
    2013, 'Relative Salience Versus Relative Validity: Cue Salience Influences Blocking in Human Associative Learning', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 40, pp. 116 - 132, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xan0000006
    Journal articles | 2012
    Beesley T; Jones FW; Shanks DR, 2012, 'Out of control: An associative account of congruency effects in sequence learning', Consciousness and Cognition, 21, pp. 413 - 421, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2011.09.020
    Journal articles | 2012
    Beesley T; Shanks DR, 2012, 'Investigating cue competition in contextual cuing of visual search', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition, 38, pp. 709 - 725, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024885
    Journal articles | 2012
    Freeman TP; Morgan CJ A; Beesley T; Curran HV, 2012, 'Drug cue induced overshadowing: Selective disruption of natural reward processing by cigarette cues amongst abstinent but not satiated smokers', Psychological Medicine, 42, pp. 161 - 171, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291711001139
    Journal articles | 2012
    2012, 'Drug cue induced overshadowing: selective disruption of natural reward processing by cigarette cues amongst abstinent but not satiated smokers (vol 42, pg 161, 2012)', PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE, 42, pp. 1341 - 1341, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0033291712000475
    Journal articles | 2011
    Beesley T; Le Pelley ME, 2011, 'The Influence of Blocking on Overt Attention and Associability in Human Learning', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 37, pp. 114 - 120, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019526
    Journal articles | 2011
    2011, 'Overt attention and predictiveness in human contingency learning.', Journal of Experimental Psychology - Animal Behavior Processes, 37, pp. 220 - 229, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0021384
    Journal articles | 2011
    2011, 'P.6.c.003 Drug cue induced overshadowing: disruption of natural reward processing by cigarette cues amongst abstinent but not satiated smokers', European Neuropsychopharmacology, 21, pp. S577 - S577, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0924-977x(11)70943-9
    Journal articles | 2010
    Beesley T; Le Pelley ME, 2010, 'The effect of predictive history on the learning of sub-sequence contingencies', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63, pp. 108 - 135, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470210902831767
    Journal articles | 2010
    Beesley T; Wills AJ; le Pelley ME, 2010, 'Syntactic transfer in artificial grammar learning', Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 17, pp. 122 - 128, http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.1.122
    Journal articles | 2010
    Le Pelley ME; Reimers SJ; Calvini G; Spears R; Beesley T; Murphy RA, 2010, 'Stereotype Formation: Biased by Association', Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139, pp. 138 - 161, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018210
    Journal articles | 2010
    Le Pelley ME; Suret MB; Beesley T, 2010, 'Learned predictiveness effects in humans: A function of learning, performance, or both? (vol 35, pg 312, 2009)', JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-ANIMAL BEHAVIOR PROCESSES, 36, pp. 22 - 22, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0018657
    Journal articles | 2009
    Le Pelley ME; Suret MB; Beesley T, 2009, 'Learned Predictiveness Effects in Humans: A Function of Learning, Performance, or Both?', Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 35, pp. 312 - 327, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0014315
    Journal articles | 2007
    Le Pelley ME; Beesley T; Suret MB, 2007, 'Blocking of human causal learning involves learned changes in stimulus processing', Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, pp. 1468 - 1476, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470210701515645
    Journal articles | 2006
    Haslam C; Gilroy D; Black S; Beesley T, 2006, 'How successful is errorless learning in supporting memory for high and low-level knowledge in dementia?', Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 16, pp. 505 - 536, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09602010500231867
    Journal articles | 2006
    Le Pelley ME; Suret MB; Beesley T, 2006, 'The locus of learned predictiveness effects in human learning', Proceedings of AISB'06: Adaptation in Artificial and Biological Systems, 1, pp. 66 - 73
  • Preprints | 2020
    2020, There is more to contextual cuing than meets the eye: Improving visual search without attentional guidance towards predictable target locations, , http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/93agz
    Preprints | 2019
    2019, A conceptual replication of Beesley et al. (2015), , http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/uanmr
    Preprints | 2019
    2019, A dimensional summation account of polymorphous category learning, , http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/yvub4
    Preprints | 2018
    2018, Testing the automaticity of an attentional bias towards predictive cues in human associative learning, , http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/m3fu4
    Conference Papers | 2016
    Beesley T; Easdale L; Le Pelley M, 2016, 'The role of uncertainty in human associative learning and attention', in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, pp. 825 - 825, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000413720406011&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1
    Conference Papers | 2016
    Beesley T; Moul C, 2016, 'Attentional processing stimulus-response-outcome chains as a function of psychopathic traits', in INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, pp. 824 - 824, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000413720406003&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1
    Conference Abstracts | 2016
    Mifsud N; Beesley T; Whitford T, 2016, 'Differential attenuation of auditory and visual evoked potentials for sensations generated by hand and eye movements', in PERCEPTION, SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, Vol. 45, pp. 264 - 264, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000390215900543&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1