51cg

People

Dr Rachel Swainson

Dr Rachel Swainson
Dr Rachel Swainson
Dr Rachel Swainson

Lecturer

51cg
Email Address
r.swainson@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number
+44 (0)1224 273918
Office Address

School of Psychology William Guild Building Room F08 Kings College Old Aberdeen AB24 3FX

School/Department
School of Psychology

Biography

I received my BSc in Neuroscience (1994) from the University of Sheffield and my PhD (1998) from the University of Cambridge, where I was supervised by Prof. Trevor Robbins.  I then worked with Prof. Barbara Sahakian at the University of Cambridge (1998-1999) and with Prof. Georgina Jackson and Prof. Stephen Jackson at the University of Nottingham (2000-2006).  I held a Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship (2002-2004) and my first lectureship (2004-2006) at the University of Nottingham.  I have been a lecturer at the 51cg since 2007.

Internal Memberships

Staff Development Lead, School of Psychology

Member of the School's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee

Research

Research Overview

Human cognition is massively flexible.  There are innumerable ways in which we can process stimuli and respond to them, and when situations change, we can change our behaviour.  This flexibility brings the need for control so that our behaviour is reasonably consistent over time and yet also able to be changed when necessary.  Task-switching research enables us to examine these aspects of cognitive control in the lab.

Tasks can be thought of as rules for processing stimuli and selecting actions.  I am interested in the reasons for the switch costs in performance that arise when we need to switch between alternative tasks.  Recent research questions include:  whether the subsequent switch costs generated by simply preparing one of two tasks (without performing it) differ from those generated by performing the prepared task; and what it takes to abolish the effects of preparation – when we abandon a prepared task – before they impact upon subsequent performance in the form of a switch cost.

Research Areas

Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

  • PS1009:   Introductory Psychology I: Concepts & Theory (Biological Psychology lectures)
  • PS3014:   Biological Psychology (Psychopharmacology lectures)
Publications

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  • Social category modulation of the happy face advantage

    Martin, D., Bottomley, E., Hutchison, J., Konopka, A., Williamson, G., Swainson, R.
    Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 1327-1340
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Does preparation generate the cost of task switching? A Recipe for a Switch Cost After Cue-Only Trials

    Yamaguchi, M., Swainson, R.
    Psychological Research, vol. 89, no. 2, 72
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The Task-Switch Cost is Still Absent After Selectively Stopping a Response in Cued Task Switching

    Yamaguchi, M., Swainson, R.
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, vol. 50, no. 10, pp. 1579–1591
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Intergroup processes and the happy face advantage: How social categories influence emotion categorization

    Martin, D., Hutchison, J., Konopka, A., Dallimore, C. J., Slessor, G., Swainson, R.
    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 126, no. 3, pp. 390-412
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Preparing a task is sufficient to generate a subsequent task-switch cost affecting task performance

    Swainson, R., Prosser, L., Yamaguchi, M.
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 39-51
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Investigating task preparation and task performance as triggers of the backward inhibition effect

    Prosser, L., Yamaguchi, M., Swainson, R.
    Psychological Research, vol. 87, pp. 1816-1835
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The effect of performing versus preparing a task on the subsequent switch cost

    Swainson, R., Prosser, L., Karavasilev, K., Romanczuk, A.
    Psychological Research, vol. 85, pp. 364-383
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Task cues lead to item-level backward inhibition with univalent stimuli and responses

    Prosser, L. J., Jackson, M. C., Swainson, R.
    Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 73, no. 3, pp. 442-457
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Task-switch costs subsequent to cue-only trials

    Swainson, R., Martin, D., Prosser, L. J.
    Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 70, no. 8, pp. 1453-1470
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The simultaneous extraction of multiple social categories from unfamiliar faces

    Martin, D., Swainson, R., Slessor, G., Hutchison, J., Marosi, D., Cunningham, S. J.
    Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 60, pp. 51-58
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Covert judgements are sufficient to trigger subsequent task-switching costs

    Swainson, R., Martin, D.
    Psychological Research, vol. 77, no. 4, pp. 434-448
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Two measures of task-specific inhibition

    Astle, D. E., Jackson, G. M., Swainson, R.
    Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology, vol. 65, no. 2, pp. 233-251
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Feedback-related negativity codes prediction error, but not behavioural adjustment during probabilistic reversal learning

    Chase, H., Swainson, R., Durham, L., Benham, L., Cools, R.
    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 936-946
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Attention, competition, and the parietal lobes: insights from Balint's syndrome

    Jackson, G. M., Swainson, R., Mort, D., Husain, M., Jackson, S. R.
    Psychological Research, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 263-270
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • ERP indices of persisting and current inhibitory control: A study of saccadic task switching

    Mueller, S. C., Swainson, R., Jackson, G. M.
    Neuroimage, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 191-197
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • The role of spatial information in advance task-set control: an event-related potential study

    Astle, D. E., Jackson, G. M., Swainson, R.
    European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 1404-1418
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Event related potentials reveal that increasing perceptual load leads to increased responses for target stimuli and decreased responses for irrelevant stimuli

    Rorden, C., Guerrini, C., Swainson, R., Lazzeri, M., Baylis, G. C.
    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 2, 4
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Fractionating the cognitive control required to bring about a change in task: a dense-sensor event-related potential study

    Astle, D. E., Jackson, G. M., Swainson, R.
    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 255-267
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Behavioural and neurophysiological correlates of bivalent and univalent responses during task switching

    Mueller, S. C., Swainson, R., Jackson, G. M.
    Brain Research, vol. 1157, pp. 56-65
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Dissociating neural indices of dynamic cognitive control in advance task-set preparation: An ERP study of task switching

    Astle, D. E., Jackson, G. M., Swainson, R.
    Brain Research, vol. 1125, no. 1, pp. 94-103
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Using advance information in dynamic cognitive control: An ERP study of task-switching

    Swainson, R., Jackson, S. R., Jackson, G. M.
    Brain Research, vol. 1105, no. 1, pp. 61-72
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Impaired dimensional selection but intact use of reward feedback during visual discrimination learning in Parkinson's disease

    Swainson, R., Sengupta, D., Shetty, T., Watkins, L. H., Summers, B. A., Sahakian, B. J., Polkey, C. E., Barker, R. A., Robbins, T. W.
    Neuropsychologia, vol. 44, no. 8, pp. 1290-1304
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Do women with fragile X syndrome have problems in switching attention: Preliminary findings from ERP and fMRI

    Cornish, K., Swainson, R., Cunnington, R., Wilding, J., Morris, P., Jackson, G.
    Brain and Cognition, vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 235-239
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • ERP correlates of a receptive language-switching task

    Jackson, G. M., Swainson, R., Mullin, A., Cunnington, R., Jackson, S. R.
    Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. A, Human Experimental Psychology, vol. 57, no. 2, pp. 223-240
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Mental representation of number in different numerical forms

    Plodowski, A., Swainson, R., Jackson, G. M., Rorden, C., Jackson, S. R.
    Current Biology, vol. 13, no. 23, pp. 2045-2050
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Cognitive control mechanisms revealed by ERP and fMRI: Evidence from repeated task-switching

    Swainson, R., Cunnington, R., Jackson, G. M., Rorden, C., Peters, A. M., Morris, P. G., Jackson, S. R.
    Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 785-799
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Improved short-term spatial memory but impaired following the dopamine D-2 agonist bromocriptine reversal learning in human volunteers

    Mehta, M. A., Swainson, R., Ogilvie, A. D., Sahakian, B. J., Robbins, T. W.
    Psychopharmacology, vol. 159, no. 1, pp. 10-20
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • ERP Correlates of executive control during repeated language-switching

    Jackson, G. M., Swainson, R., Cunnington, R., Jackson, S. R.
    Bilingualism, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 169-178
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Early detection and differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and depression with neuropsychological tasks

    Swainson, R., Hodges, J. R., Galton, C. J., Semple, J., Michael, A., Dunn, B. D., Iddon, J. L., Robbins, T. W., Sahakian, B. J.
    Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, vol. 12, pp. 265-280
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Rule-abstraction deficits following a basal ganglia lesion

    Swainson, R., Robbins, T. W.
    Neurocase, vol. 7, no. 5, pp. 433-444
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Probabilistic learning and reversal deficits in patients with Parkinson's disease or frontal or temporal lobe lesions: possible adverse effects of dopaminergic medication

    Swainson, R., Rogers, R. D., Sahakian, B. J., Summers, B. A., Polkey, C. E., Robbins, T. W.
    Neuropsychologia, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 596-612
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Dissociable deficits in the decision-making cognition of chronic amphetamine abusers, opiate abusers, patients with focal damage to prefrontal cortex, and tryptophan-depleted normal volunteers: Evidence for monoaminergic mechanisms

    Rogers, R. D., Everitt, B. J., Baldacchino, A., Blackshaw, A. J., Swainson, R., Wynne, K., Baker, N. B., Hunter, J., Carthy, T., Booker, E., London, M., Deakin, J. F. W., Sahakian, B. J., Robbins, T. W.
    Neuropsychopharmacology, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 322-339
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
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