51cg

The School of Psychology

Professor Ben Tatler

In this section
Professor Ben Tatler
Professor Ben Tatler
Professor Ben Tatler

Vice-Principal (Research)

51cg
Email Address
b.w.tatler@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number
+44 (0)1224 273930
Office Address

School of Psychology
William Guild Building
King's College
Aberdeen AB24 3FX

Office S11

School/Department
Provost





Biography

I obtained my undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences (Biological) at the University of Cambridge in 1998 and my DPhil in Neuroscience at the University of Sussex in 2002. After obtaining my PhD I worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sussex before moving to the University of Dundee in 2004, where I held the positions of Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader. I have been a Professor of Psychology at the 51cg since 2015. During this time, I led the UOA4 REF submission and served as Director of Research for Psychology. 

In 2024, I was appointed Dean for Research Culture, leading institutional work to strengthen research culture, researcher development and responsible research assessment. This role included developing the University’s Research Cultures Strategy, identifying key priorities, shaping policy and working across Schools and Professional Services to support a more inclusive, open and supportive research environment.

In May 2026, I was appointed Vice-Principal (Research).

Qualifications

  • MA Natural Sciences (Biological) 
    1998 - University of Cambridge 
  • DPhil Neuroscience and Psychology 
    2002 - University of Sussex 

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships

University committees – as chair

  • REF Strategy Group (2024-present)
  • University Research Committee (2023-present)
  • TRAC Steering Group (2026-present)
  • Interdisciplinary Institute Steering Group (2026-present)
  • Interdisciplinary Institute External Advisory Board (2026-present)
  • Joint Consultative Committee on Redundancy Avoidance (2026-present)
  • Technician Commitment Steering Group (2025-present)
  • Research Cultures Oversight Group (2025-present)
  • University Postdoctoral Research Committee (2024-present)
  • Research Centres Review Committee (2024-present)
  • Clinical Research Steering Group [co-chair] (2026-present)

University committees – as member

  • University Management Group (2024-present)
  • Senate (2024-present)
  • Senate Business Committee (2025-present)
  • University Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (2024-present)
  • Honorary Degrees Committee (2026-present)
  • Digital Strategy Committee (2026-present)
  • Enterprise & Innovation Committee (2026-present)
  • Estates Committee (2026-present)
  • Information Governance Committee (2026-present)
  • International Research Oversight Group (2026-present)
  • NDC Executive Committee (2026-present)
  • NDC Operational Board (2026-present)
  • Aberdeen University Press Academic Advisory Board (2024-present)
  • Copyright Literacy Steering Group (2024-present)
  • Staff Experience Committee (2024-present)

Programme Boards and limited-life Working Groups

  • Adapting for Continued Success, Organisational Design (Academic) Workstream (2026-present)
  • Adapting for Continued Success, People and Culture Workstream (2025-present)
  • Adapting for Continued Success, Culture Audit Working Group (2025-present)
  • Labs of the Future Programme Board [chair] (2026-present)
  • Start Up & Spin Out Panel (2026-present)
  • Technical Review Group [chair] (2025-present)
  • Annual Review Working Group (2024-2025)
  • AI in research Task and Finish Group (2025)
  • Race Equality Charter Survey Working Group (2025)
  • Staff Survey Working Group (2024)
  • Reimagining the Campus – Research Working Group (2024)
External Memberships

External committees and boards representing Aberdeen

  • Universities Scotland Research & Knowledge Exchange Committee (RKEC)
  • Aberdeen/Calgary/Curtin Alliance Board
  • Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences (SGSSS) Supervisory Board
  • Wesley VPRs/PVC-Rs

External memberships

  • Member of the national Vitae Policy Advisory Group
  • Institutional lead for the UK Reproducibility Network
  • Member of the Evaluation Support Scotland Board of Trustees
  • Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society
  • Member of the Experimental Psychology Society
  • Member of the Psychonomic Society
  • Member of the Applied Vision Association
  • Fellowship in the Higher Education Academy
  • Emeritus member of the Young Academy of Scotland, having been one of the first cohort when this was established

Latest Publications

  • Now you see it, now you don't: The age-related positivity effect to faces disappears in naturalistic settings

    Grainger, S. A., Ward, E., Barber, S. J., Tatler, B. W., Phillips, L. H.
    Emotion, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 707-716
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Method matters: Diverging patterns in online measures of temporal binding

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 140, 104022
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Coming Up Next: The Extent of the Perceptual Window in Comic Reading

    Vaughan, P. B., Tatler, B., Kirtley, C., Murray, C.
    Cognitive Science, vol. 49, no. 11, e70142
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The time course of the first decision in scene viewing: Perceptual and semantic contributions to initial scene processing

    Tatler, B., Brockmole, J. R.
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, vol. 51, no. 8, pp. 1118–1140
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Through the MS Looking Glass: Navigating the Unseen

    Robertson, C., Laird, C., Larkin, A., Murray, C., Tatler, B., Kirtley, C.
    Non-textual Forms: Digital or Visual Products
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

View My Publications

Research

Research Overview

Many of our everyday behaviours require visual input to guide them. My research focuses on two key questions that we must address to understand how vision supports natural behaviour: (1) where we look and (2) what we encode and retain from the objects we look at. A particular emphasis within this work is the importance of studying vision in the context of natural behaviour in real environments, rather than exclusively in laboratory settings. My research has contributed to our theoretical understanding of the factors that underlie decisions about where to look in complex scenes and to our theoretical understanding of the representations that underlie natural vision.

I apply these research interests to a range of real-world problems including hazard perception in driving, CCTV surveillance, and how comics can be used for conveying public health information.

Research Areas

Psychology

  • Supervising
View Research Area

Research Specialisms

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Research Methods in Psychology

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is , published under the licence.

Funding and Grants

Recent funding:

Tatler, B. W. & Murray, C. (2021-2024). Comics vs. Covid: informing and evaluating the design of public health information comics SGSSS [PhD studentship]

Chu, M. & Tatler, B. W. (2020-2021). Giving cognition a helping hand: how gesture facilitates spatial thinking. The Leverhulme Trust. Awarded: £118,822

Phillips, L., Tatler, B. W., & Henry, J. (2017-2020). Adult aging and social attention: the role of cognitive decline and social motivation. ESRC. Awarded: £625,615

Teaching

Courses

Publications

Page 1 of 2 Results 1 to 25 of 42

  • Now you see it, now you don't: The age-related positivity effect to faces disappears in naturalistic settings

    Grainger, S. A., Ward, E., Barber, S. J., Tatler, B. W., Phillips, L. H.
    Emotion, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 707-716
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Method matters: Diverging patterns in online measures of temporal binding

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Consciousness and Cognition, vol. 140, 104022
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Coming Up Next: The Extent of the Perceptual Window in Comic Reading

    Vaughan, P. B., Tatler, B., Kirtley, C., Murray, C.
    Cognitive Science, vol. 49, no. 11, e70142
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The time course of the first decision in scene viewing: Perceptual and semantic contributions to initial scene processing

    Tatler, B., Brockmole, J. R.
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, vol. 51, no. 8, pp. 1118–1140
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Through the MS Looking Glass: Navigating the Unseen

    Robertson, C., Laird, C., Larkin, A., Murray, C., Tatler, B., Kirtley, C.
    Non-textual Forms: Digital or Visual Products
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The time course of Temporal Binding in social and nonsocial interactions

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 326-341
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • What's left of the leftward bias in scene viewing?: Lateral asymmetries in information processing during early search guidance

    Spotorno, S., Tatler, B. w.
    Cognition, vol. 254, 106009
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Tracking e-reading behavior: uncovering the effects of task context, electronic experience, and motivation

    Vuorinen, P. T., Tatler, B., Keller, F.
    Frontiers In Education, vol. 8, 1302701
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Age Differences in Gaze Following: Older Adults Follow Gaze More than Younger Adults When free-viewing Scenes

    Fernandes, E. G., Tatler, B. W., Slessor, G., Phillips, L. H.
    Experimental Aging Research, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 84-101
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Navigating the narrative: An eye-tracking study of readers' strategies when Reading comic page layouts

    Kirtley, C., Murray, C., Vaughan, P. B., Tatler, B. W.
    Applied Cognitive Psychology, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 52-70
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The time course of social and non-social implicit Sense of Agency

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Working Papers: Preprint Papers
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • The interplay between gaze and consistency in scene viewing: Evidence from visual search by young and older adults

    Fernandes, E., Phillips, L., Slessor, G., Tatler, B.
    Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, vol. 83, pp. 1954–1970
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Social Agency as a Continuum

    Silver, C., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 28, pp. 434-453
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Searching in CCTV: effects of organisation in the multiplex

    Tatler, B.
    Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, vol. 6, no. 1, 11
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Research Plan - How gaze is deployed in visual target choice and how we identify if like-wise choices are human- or computer-generated when observing and interacting

    Silver, C. A., Tatler, B., Chakravarthi, R., Timmermans, B.
    EPS Online 2020
    Contributions to Conferences: Posters
    • [ONLINE] DOI:

  • Is it always so?: Unexpected visions

    Deręgowski, J. B., Tatler, B. W.
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 43, pp. e128
    Contributions to Journals: Comments and Debates
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [ONLINE]

  • The effects of cognitive distraction on behavioural, oculomotor and electrophysiological metrics during a driving hazard perception task

    Savage, S. W., Potter, D. D., Tatler, B. W.
    Accident Analysis & Prevention, vol. 138, pp. 105469
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • Object Properties Influence Visual Guidance of Motor Actions

    Scrafton, S., Stainer, M. J., Tatler, B. W.
    Vision, vol. 3, no. 2, 28
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
    • [ONLINE]

  • The effects of array structure and secondary cognitive task demand on processes of visual search

    Savage, S. W., Potter, D. D., Tatler, B. W.
    Vision Research, vol. 153, pp. 37-46
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Gaze in a real-world social interaction: A dual eye-tracking study

    MacDonald, R. G., Tatler, B. W.
    Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 71, no. 10, pp. 2162-2173
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Reading words and images: Factors influencing eye movements in comic reading

    Kirtley, C., Murray, C., Vaughan, P. B., Tatler, B. W.
    Empirical Approaches to Comics Research: Digital, Multimodal, and Cognitive Methods. Dunst, A., Laubrock, J., Wildfeuer, J. (eds.). Routledge, pp. 264-283, 20 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [ONLINE]

  • The Elephant in the Room: Inconsistency in Scene Viewing and Representation

    Spotorno, S., Tatler, B. W.
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, vol. 43, no. 10, pp. 1717-1743
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • The saccadic flow baseline: Accounting for image-independent biases in fixation behaviour

    Clarke, A. D. F., Stainer, M. J., Tatler, B. W., Hunt, A. R.
    Journal of Vision, vol. 17, no. 11, pp. 1-19
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • Coordinating vision and action in natural behaviour: differences in spatiotemporal coupling in everyday tasks

    Scrafton, S., Stainer, M. J., Tatler, B. W.
    Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 71, no. 2, pp. 133-145
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]

  • LATEST: A Model of Saccadic Decisions in Space and Time

    Tatler, B. W., Brockmole, J. R., Carpenter, R. H. S.
    Psychological Review, vol. 124, no. 3, pp. 267-300
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
    • [ONLINE] DOI:
    • [OPEN ACCESS]
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